Baseball Best-Sellers, February 7, 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.

1. Baseball Prospectus 2025
2. Ron Shandler’s 2025 Baseball Forecaster
3. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keen (Paperback)
4. 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
5. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski Ω (My review on Bookreporter.com)
6. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
7. The 2025 Fantasy Baseball Blackbook, by Joe Pisapia
8. Baseball Obscura 2025, by David J. Fleming *
9. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis Ω (paperback)
10. The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman

1. The Wingmen
2. The Machine, by Posnanski
3. The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves, by Keith Law
4. The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
5. Baseball Obscura
6. Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself, by Michael Shapiro
7. Split Season 1981: Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo, and the Strike that Saved Baseball, by Jeff Katz
8. Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?: The Improbable Saga of the New York Mets’ First Year, by Jimmy Breslin
9. Moneyball
10. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant

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 Baseball 100
3. Why We Love Baseball
4. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (narrated by the author)
5. The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City, by Kevin Baker Ω
6. Wait Till Next Year, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
7. 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)
8. Calico Joe, by John Grisham (My review on Bookreporter.com)
9. The Methany Manifesto, by Mike Methany with Jerry B. Jenkins
10. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant

I have not read the new edition of Baseball Obscura yet, but I can’t imagine it’s all that different in form and format. Here’s my review of last year’s offering; I’m going out on a limb to say it’s probably very similar.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 515,026 overall in books (#26 in Literary Bibliographies & Indexes); last time, 1,048,725.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,398,495; last time, 3,385,025.

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.