Baseball Best-Sellers, December 8, 2023

A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“).

In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one by including a book in a category in which it should not be listed (in my opinion). For example, The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect has appeared on the BBS list. “Why” is a good question. There might be a smattering of the national pastime in it, but not enough to make it a baseball book per se (again, IMO).

Finally, adults only here. That is, no books for younger readers. Also no “adult” adult books (romance/erotic fiction that features baseball as a theme although goodness knows there are a bunch of those out there).

So, with all that said…

The links under the authors’ names will take you to the Bookshelf Conversations I did with them. An asterisk denotes a book making its debut on the BBS list.

PRINT

1. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski
2. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
3. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
4. The Ultimate Atlanta Braves Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Braves Fans!, by Ray Walker
5. The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
6. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
7. The Ultimate Philadelphia Phillies Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Phillies Fans!, by Ray Walker
8. The Ultimate Chicago Cubs Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Cubs Fans!, by Ray Walker
9. The Ultimate Boston Red Sox Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard BoSox Fans!, by Ray Walker
10. Ballparks: A Journey Through the Fields of the Past, Present, and Future, by Eric Enders

KINDLE BOOKS

1. The Wingmen
2. Why We Love Baseball
3. How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed, by Thomas Gilbert
4. Ball Four: 50th Anniversary Edition, by Jim Bouton
5. Fifty-Nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, & the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had, by Edward Achorn
6. Tinker to Evers to Chance: The Chicago Cubs and the Dawn of Modern America, by David Rapp
7. Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, by Jason Turbow
8. Moneyball
9. The Boys of Summer: The Classic Narrative of Growing Up Within Shouting Distance of Ebbets Field, Covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and What’s Happened to Everybody Since, by Roger Kahn
10. The Baseball 100

AUDIBLE

Note: Amazon has changed the way they list audiobooks. No longer under the general category of “biography and memoir,” they are now treated in their own baseball/softball category. Here’s the general link to the section where you will find further links to the individual titles, their reader/narrators, and samples. Note further that these are updated regularly and the top ten list below might no longer be the same.

1. Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
2. Why We Love Baseball
3. The Baseball 100
4. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (read by the author)
5. Intangibles: Unlocking the Science and Soul of Team Chemistry, by Joan Ryan
6. The Boys of Summer
7. The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever, by Jack Curry (read by the author)
8. Summer of ’49, by David Halberstam
9. Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess, by Evan Drellich
10. The Methany Manifesto, by Mike Methany with Jerry B. Jenkins

This is getting monotonous. Not to knock Walker’s work, but are people just too lazy to really dive into a book?

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,478,920 in Books overall in books; last time, 2,019,278. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,101,137 in Books; last time, 2,889,003.

Shameless self-promotion: if you’re looking for some good baseball reading during this down time, why not pick up a copy of 501? It’s like the dictionary; it has the other books in it, which reminds me of one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite shows.

NOTE: A new edition of 501 is on the way. Stay tuned for details!

A reminder: There’s an Excel “checklist” of the books list in 501. If you’re interested in keeping track of how many you have read or own, drop me a line.

If you have read either of my books, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing an Amazon review; it’s never too late.