Baseball Best-Sellers, March 22, 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 (i.e., 12 and under). 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
Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball, by Keith O’Brien
The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City, by Kevin Baker
The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
Baseball America 2024 Prospect Handbook *
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and Tom Underwood
Heads-Up Baseball : Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time, by Tom Hanson and Ken Ravizza
The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis

KINDLE BOOKS

Charlie Hustle
The Wingmen
Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, by Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King
David Halberstam on Sports
Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
The New York Game
Penguin Power: Dodger Blue, Hollywood Lights, and My One-in-a-Million Big League Journey, by Ron Cey
Why We Love Baseball
Baseball Prospectus 2024
Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James S. Hirsch

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.

Charlie Hustle
Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
Why We Love Baseball
The Baseball 100
The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit, by Ron Shelton (narrated by the author)
The New York Game
Tom Seaver: A Terrific Life
The Science of Hitting
Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (narrated by the author)
The Yankee Way: The Untold Story of the Brian Cashman Era

Running late today as I prepare to visit Cincinnati to attend Spitball Magazine’s CASEY Awards. Joe Posnanski will be the recipient and I’ll have a chance to meet some others with whom I’ve been corresponding for years — decades in a few cases — but have never met in person.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,562,754 overall in books; last time, 2,296,639. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,902,977; last time, 2,892,982.

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.