Baseball Best- Sellers, December 27, 2024

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 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.

1. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keen (Paperback)
2. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
3. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski Ω (My review on Bookreporter.com)
4. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
5. 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)
6. The Baseball 100, by Posnanski Ω
7. Baseball Prospectus 2025 (Jan. 25. 2025) *
8. The Ultimate New York Mets Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Mets Fans!, by Walker
9. On Top of the World: The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Extraordinary Run to the 2024 World Series, by the Los Angeles Daily News
10. Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas, by Jesse Cole and Don Yeager

KINDLE BOOKS

1. The Wingmen
2. Charlie Hustle
3. Moneyball, by Michael Lewis
4. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Individual, by Howard Bryant
5. Why We Love Baseball
6. The New York Game, by Kevin Baker
7. Eight Men Out, by Eliot Asinof
8. The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2025, by Joe Pisapia *
9. Wait Til Next Year, By Doris Kearns Goodwin
10. The Arm, by Jeff Passan

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. The New York Game
2. Moneyball (unabridged, read by Scott Brick)
3. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
4. The Baseball 100
5. Charlie Hustle
6. Wait Till Next Year
7. Why We Love Baseball
8. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and Tom Underwood
9. Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, by Eric Nussbaum
10. The Yankee Way, by Andy Martino

Here we go: Baseball Prospectus and fantasy baseball are creeping onto the list, supplanting some of the trivia titles.

I may have said this before, but it’s had to think of an audio version of The Science of Hitting; it just strikes me as more of a visual thing.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 562,409 (#40 in Literary Bibliographies & Indexes); last time, 1,389,453 overall in books.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,423,317 ; last time, 3,477,867.

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.