Baseball Best-Sellers, February 20, 2026

Amazon keeps changing the way they report, so that will be mirrored here. Sometimes there will be rankings of Kindle and audio-books on baseball, other times, not.

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. Ron Shandler’s 2026 Baseball Forecaster and Encyclopedia of Fanalytics (My Bookshelf Conversation with Shandler from 2015 here)
2. Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America, by Howard Bryant
3. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
4. The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2026, by Joe Pisapia
5. Baseball Obscura 2026, by David J. Fleming
6. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene (my Bookshelf review here)
7. 1978: Baseball and America in the Disco Era, by David Krell
8. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski (My review on Bookreporter.com) Ω
9. The Baseball 100, by Posnanski Ω
10. The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball, by John W. Miller. (My review on Bookreporter.com) Ω

KINDLE

1. It’s a Beautiful Day for Baseball: The National Pastime in the 1960s, by Doug Kurkul
2. Season Ticket, by Roger Angell
3. Billy Martin: Baseball’s Flawed Genius, by Bill Pennington
4. The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow
5. Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of ’76, by Dan Epstein
6. The Heyday of Willie, Duke, and Mickey: New York City Baseball’s Golden Age amid Integration, by Robert C. Cottrell

AUDIO BOOKS

1. Moneyball, by Michael Lewis (narrated by Scott Brick)
2. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (narrated by the author)
3. The Bad Guys Won: A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and the Rest of the 1986 Mets, the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform – and Maybe the Best, by Jeff Pearlman (narrated by the author)
4. The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views on Success in Sports and Life, by Mike Matheny
5. Ninety Percent Mental: An All-Star Player Turned Mental Skills Coach Reveals the Hidden Game of Baseball, by Bob Tewksbury (narrated by the author)
6. Summer of ’49, by David Halberstam
7. Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, by Jane Leavy
8. Fenway Punk: How a Boston Indie Label Scored Big on Baseball’s Greatest Rivalry, by Chris Wrenn
9. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
10. The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy (narrated by the author)

Enough of a representation of Kindle and audio books to list them, even if they’re not an even ten.

Feeling nostalgic? There are two books about baseball in the seventies to remind you how old you are.

Just received a copy of Cotrell’s book about Willie, Mickey, and the Duke, along with a bunch of other titles from Bloomsbury Press. Fun.

Honorable mention: Even though it’s technically not a book, Fantasy Baseball Index Book 2026 — a magazine — lists in the #1 spot among BBS.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 3,198,974 in Books overall; last time, 2,992,547.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,503,046; last time, 3,375,805.

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.