Baseball Best-Sellers, February 21, 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.

PRINT

1. Baseball Prospectus 2025
2. Ron Shandler’s 2025 Baseball Forecaster
3. The 2025 Fantasy Baseball Blackbook, by Joe Pisapia
4. Baseball Obscura 2025, by David J. Fleming
5. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keen (Paperback)
6. The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball, by John W. Miller *
7. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski Ω (My review on Bookreporter.com)
8. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
9. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and Tom Underwood
10. Baseball America 2025 Prospect Handbook *

KINDLE

1. Summer of ’68: The Season That Changed Baseball — and America — Forever, by Tim Wendel *
2. Why We Love Baseball
3. The Baseball 100, by Posnanski
4. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
5. The Summer Game, by Roger Angell
6. The Yankee Way: The Untold Inside Story of the Brian Cashman Era, by Andy Martino
7. The Enchanted Season, by Larry Parrish with Tom Gage *
8. The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness, by Andy McCullough
9. A Fan’s Guide to Baseball Analytics: Why WAR, WHIP, wOBA, and Other Advanced Sabermetrics Are Essential to Understanding Modern Baseball, by Anthony Castrovince
10. The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America, by Posnanski

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. Hurdle-isms: Wit and Wisdom from a Lifetime in Baseball, by Clint Hurdle (April 1) *
2. The Baseball 100
3. K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, by Tyler Kepner (narrated buy the author)
4. Why We Love Baseball
5. The Last Manager *
6. Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
7. Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize, by Jerry Grillo*
8. Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life, by Richard Ben Cramer (narrated by the author) *
9. The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, by Bruce Markusen *
10. War on the Basepaths: The Definitive Biography of Ty Cobb, by Tim Hornbaker *

So many new titles on this week’s lists. To be fair, they may have been on the lists last week but due to Valentine’s Day (and my anniversary), I was unable to post.

Looking forward to the two new “managerial” titles.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks1,963,853  overall in books; last time,  515,026.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,409,473; last time, 3,398,495.

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: biography, Fantasy baseball, instructionals, managers, Memoir, Non-fiction, Rankings, Reading Lists