Baseball Best-Sellers, May 17, 2024

May 17, 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. And a Ω (omega), means it’s an award winner.

https://i1.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91o-YBw+aaL._SL1500_.jpg?resize=246%2C324&ssl=1PRINT

  1. The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness, by Andy McCullough
  2. The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City, by Kevin Baker
  3. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski Ω
  4. The Ballpark Bucket List: Take THIS Out to the Ballgame! – The Ultimate Scorecard for Visiting All 30 Major League Park, by James Buckley, Jr.
  5. Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball, by Keith O’Brien
  6. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
  7. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and Tom Underwood
  8. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis Ω
  9. The National Baseball Hall of Fame Collection: Celebrating the Game’s Greatest Players, by James Buckley Jr.
  10. Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas, by Jesse Cole and Don Yaeger

KINDLE BOOKS

  1. I Was Right on Time, by Buck O’Neil with Steve Wulf and David Konrads
  2. Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series, by Eliot Asinof
  3. Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, by Jonathan Eig
  4. Charlie Hustle
  5. The Last of His Kind
  6. The New York Game
  7. The Wingmen
  8. The Teammates: A Portrait of Friendship, by David Halberstam
  9. Moneyball
  10. Why We Love Baseball

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. The Last of His Kind
  3. Charlie Hustle
  4. Why We Love Baseball
  5. The Baseball 100
  6. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (narrated by the author)
  7. The New York Game
  8. My Mets Bible: Scoring 30 Years of Baseball Fandom, by Evan Roberts (narrated by the author)
  9. Wait Til Next Year, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
  10. The Closer: My Story, by Mariano Rivera and Wayne Coffey

Mazel to to Jonathan Eig, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his bio of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,915,574 overall in books; last time, 2,874,440.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 673,091; last time, 2,947,364.

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.

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