Baseball Best-Sellers, January 24, 2025

January 24, 2025

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://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71Zg2N6aoyL._SL1360_.jpg

  1. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski Ω (My review on Bookreporter.com)
  2. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keen (Paperback)
  3. The 2025 Fantasy Baseball Blackbook, by Joe Pisapia
  4. Baseball Prospectus 2025
  5. Bob Uecker Biography, by Leon Norris
  6. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
  7. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis Ω (paperback)
  8. Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time, by Ken Ravizza and Tom Hansen
  9. The Baseball 100, by Posnanski Ω
  10. Motor Preferences for Baseball: A Coach’s Guide to Identifying and Respecting Player Strengths to Enhance Performance and Reduce Injury, by David Genest and Matthew Swope

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91rPiz9hymL._SL1500_.jpgKINDLE BOOKS

  1. The Wingmen
  2. Electric October: Seven World Series Games, Six Lives, Five Minutes of Fame That Lasted Forever, by Kevin Cook
  3. So Many Ways to Lose: The Amazin’ True Story of the New York Mets—the Best Worst Team in Sports, by Devin Gordon
  4. Moneyball
  5. Why We Love Baseball
  6. You Gotta Have Wa: When Two Cultures Collide on the Baseball Diamond, by Robert Whiting
  7. Ball Four, by Jim Bouton
  8. Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age, by Sridhar Pappu, (my review on Bookreporter.com)
  9. The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
  10. 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)

AUDIBLE

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61GnEO1KtIS._SL1500_.jpgNote: 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 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)
  2. Play Hungry: The Making of a Baseball Player, by Pete Rose
  3. Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing, by Andy Martino (narrated by the author)
  4. Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
  5. The Captain: A Memoir, by David Wright and Anthony DiComo
  6. Till the End, by CC Sabathia and Chris Smith (narrated by Sabathia)
  7. The Baseball 100
  8. They Said It Couldn’t Be Done: The ’69 Mets, New York City, and the Most Astounding Season in Baseball History, by Wayne Coffey
  9. The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City, by Kevin Baker

Lots of new/returning items this week, including Sabathia’s and Wright’s stories. Congrats to CC on being elected into the Hall of Fame. As far as the Kindle section goes, I would LOVE to see an updated version of the Historical Abstract, which came out in this revised form in 2010. Long overdue and worth the anticipated extra cost for the extra pages.

These “new” inclusions allow me to relive some old Bookshelf Conversations with Sridhar Pappu and Wayne Coffey.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 1,738,175 overall in books; last time, 1,080,016.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,371,948; last time, 3,358,148.

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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