Baseball Best-Sellers, November 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 had with them. An asterisk denotes a book making its debut on the BBS list. And a “Ω” means it’s an award winner.

PRINT

1. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski (My review on Bookreporter.com)
2. Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It, by Jane Leavy (My review on Bookreporter.com)
3. Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas, by Jesse Cole
4. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keen (Paperback; my review here)
5. The Ultimate Baseball Trivia Challenge, by Hank Patton
6. The Ultimate Los Angeles Dodgers Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Dodgers Fans!, by Ray Walker
7. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Walker
8. The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City, by Kevin Baker
9. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
10. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood

KINDLE

1. Pitch by Pitch: My View of One Unforgettable Game, by Bob Gibson with Lonnie Wheeler
2. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City, by Jonathan Mahler
3. 1978: Baseball and America in the Disco Era, by David Krell
4. The Natural, by Bernard Malamud
5. Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing, by Andy Martino
6. The Physics of Baseball: Third Edition, Revised, Updated, and Expanded, by Robert Adair
7. The Selling of the Babe: The Deal That Changed Baseball and Created a Legend, by Glenn Stout
8. Lou: Fifty Years of Kicking Dirt, Playing Hard, and Winning Big in the Sweet Spot of Baseball, by Lou Pienella with Bill Madden

AUDIOBOOKS

1. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis (narrated by Scott Brick)
2. The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball
3. The Baseball 100, by Posnanski
4. The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness, by Andy McCullough (My review for Bookreporter.com, here)
5. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah
6. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, narrated by the author
7. Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, by Eric Nussbaum (my review of the print edition on Bookreporter.com)
8. Wait Till Next Year, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
9. Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball, by Keith O’Brien
10. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City, by Jonathan Mahler

Interesting that a larger number of audio books fall into Amazon’s Top 100, which is they way they’re posting rather than offering the top titles in each of the three categories (which is why there isn’t always ten for each).

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,819,450 overall (#85 in Literary Bibliographies and Indexes); last time, 2,646,718.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,008,291; last time, 2,890,612.

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.

BUT…

Some exciting news (now we’ll see who’s paying attention and reading down this far).

Necessity is the mother of invention. Thanks to emergency surgery in which I said goodbye to a recalcitrant gallbladder, I have a couple off months for recuperation during which time I will be working on a revision of 501.

The new version will include all the original stuff but as you know if you’re a baseball reading fool, there have been a lot of great books published since 501 came out a dozen years ago. So since this isn’t a ranking where one title might be pushed off the list, the new material will appear as an added chapter.

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.