Baseball Best-Sellers, June 7, 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.

PRINT

1. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski Ω (My review on Bookreporter.com)
2. The Franchise — Atlanta Braves: A Curated History of the Braves, by Mark Bowman
3. Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball, by Keith O’Brien (My review on Bookreporter.com)
4. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
5. The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City, by Kevin Baker (My review on Bookreporter.com)
6. The Yankee Way: The Untold Inside Story of the Brain Cashman Era, by Andy Martino (My review on Bookreporter.com)
7. The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness, by Andy McCullough
8. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis Ω
9. Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of ’76, by Dan Epstein
10. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and Tom Underwood

KINDLE BOOKS

1. Stars and Strikes
2. The New Ballgame: The Not-So-Hidden Forces Shaping Modern Baseball, by Russell Carleton
3. Charlie Hustle
4. Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, by Jonathan Eig
5. Moneyball
6. Comeback Season: My Unlikely Story of Friendship with the Greatest Living Negro League Baseball Players, by Cam Perron with Nick Chiles
7. Wait Til Next Year, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
8. The New York Game
9. Once More Around the Park, by Roger Angell
10. Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, by Jason Turbow

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. Charlie Hustle
3. The Last of His Kind
4. The Yankee Way
5. The Baseball 100
6. Why We Love Baseball
7. Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas, by Jesse Cole with Don Yeager (narrated by Cole)
8. The New York Game
9. Wait Till Next Year
10. Baseball Cop: The Dark Side of America’s National Pastime, by Eddie Dominguez

Nice to see two “throw-back” books by Epstein and Turbow on the list.

I was kidding Jonathan Eig about if he should sign his autographs with a “PP” for the Pulitzer Prize he won for his bio of Martin Luther King, Jr., comparing it with Hall of Fame inductees who add an “HOF” to their signatures to make them more valuable. I sent him a ball and told him he could practice on me.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,958,103 overall in books; last time, 2,937,091.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,438,733; last time, 2,138,875.

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.

Tagged as: New York Yankees