Baseball Best-Sellers, January 12, 2024

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 Amazon’s 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
Baseball Prospectus 2024 *
The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
Ron Shandler’s 2024 Baseball Forecaster: And Encyclopedia of Fanalytics
The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2024, by Joe Pisapia
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
The Bill James Baseball Handbook: Walk-Off Edition
The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski

KINDLE BOOKS

The Wingmen
Why We Love Baseball
Moneyball
The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2024
The Last Miracle: My 18-Year Journey with the Amazin’ New York Mets, by Ed Kranepool with with Gary Kaschak
The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers, by Michael Leahy
The Second Coming of Ty Cobb, by Roland Colton
Ball Four: 50th Anniversary Edition, by Jim Bouton
Turning Two: My Journey to the Top of the World and Back with the New York Mets, Bud Harrelson with Phil Pepe
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.

Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
Why We Love Baseball
The Baseball 100
The Tao of the Backup Catcher: Playing Baseball for the Love of the Game, by Tim Brown with Eric Kratz
The Methany Manifesto, by Mike Methany with Jerry B. Jenkins
The Bad Guys Won, by Jeff Pearlman (read by the author)
Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess, by Evan Drellich
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City, by Jonathan Mahler
The Boys of Summer, by Roger Kahn
Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton

Totally not surprised by the appearance of Turning Two by Bud Harrelson, who passed away yesterday at the age of 79.

Baseball Prospectus makes its annual return, presaging Opening Day.

At some point, I will be writing in full about the Bill James oeuvre. I still remember buying the first Baseball Abstract that was widely published at a Barnes and Noble near my office on the Upper East side in the eighties. Ah, memories. Like a lot of other people, I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. (Don’t you wonder what the best thing was before slice bread?)

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,002,404 overall in books; last time, 1,069,466. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,147,286; last time, 1,803,818.

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.