Baseball Best-Sellers, December 29, 2023

The last one of the year. where did the time go?

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

Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski
The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
Ron Shandler’s 2024 Baseball Forecaster: And Encyclopedia of Fanalytics *
The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
Moon Baseball Road Trips: The Complete Guide to All the Ballparks, with Beer, Bites, and Sights Nearby, by Timothy Malcolm

KINDLE BOOKS

Why We Love Baseball
The Wingmen
David Halberstam on Sports
Game Time, by Roger Angell
Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game, by Rob Neyer
The Roger Angell Baseball Collection
Billy Martin: Baseball’s Flawed Genius, by Bill Pennington
The Baseball 100
Ball Four: 50th Anniversary Edition, by Jim Bouton
Babe: The Legend Comes to Life, by Robert Creamer

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.

Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess, by Evan Drellich
The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves, by Keith Law
Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
Why We Love Baseball
Miracle in Shreveport: A Memoir of Baseball, Fatherhood, and the Stadium that Launched a Dream, by David and Jason Benham
The Baseball 100
Banana Ball, by Jesse Kole with Don Yeager
Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life, by Micheal Lewis (read by the author)
The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever, by Jack Curry (read by the author)
Making It Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League, by Teresa Strasser (read by the author)

After a few weeks’ absence, two old favorites — Moneyball and The Science of Hitting — return to the print list. That, coupled with Ron Shandler’s annual, pushes some of the trivia off. Surprised by the increase in Baseball Road Trips, since it’s out of date (published in 2021).

The Halberstam collection includes Summer of ’49 and October 1964.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 3,059,221 overall in books; last time, 2,821,034. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 929,905; last time, 1,743,488. I suppose it was just a matter of time until 501 dropped, but to actually see that number is still a shocker. Guess I’ll have to get cracking on the revised edition.

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.

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.