Baseball Best-Sellers, March 27, 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, almost always in the print version.

PRINT

1. The Bosses of the Bronx: The Endless Drama of the Yankees Under the House of Steinbrenner, by Mike Vaccaro *
2. Unhittable: How Technology, Mavericks, and Innovators Engineered Baseball’s New Era of Pitching Dominance, by Rob Friedman
3. Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team, by A.M., Glittzlitz*
4. The Ultimate Baseball Trivia Challenge, by Hank Patton
5. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis Ω
6. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski (My review on Bookreporter.com) Ω
7. 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)
8. The Baseball 100, by Posnanski
9. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
10. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood

KINDLE

1. Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leerhsen
2. Ball Four: 50th Anniversary Edition, by Jim Bouton
3. Baseball Obscura 2026, by David J. Fleming
4. 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid, by Willie Mays and John Shea
5. The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness, by Buster Olney
6. I’m Fascinated by Sacrifice Flies: Inside the Game We All Love, by Tim Kurkjian
7. Sho-Time: The Inside Story of Shohei Ohtani and the Greatest Baseball Season Ever Played, by Jeff Fletcher

AUDIO BOOKS

1. 72 Stories: From the Baseball Collection of Geddy Lee, by Lee (narrated by the author)
2. Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It, by Jane Leavy (narrated by the author)
3. Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats that are Ruining the Game, the New Ones that are Running it, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball, by Keith Law
4. Baseball, by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (narrated by Burns)
5. The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views on Success in Sports and Life, by Mike Matheny
6. 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)
7. The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
8. Tales from the Deadball Era: Ty Cobb, Home Run Baker, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the Wildest Times in Baseball History, byMark S. Halfon

Finally, some fresh meat. Bosses of the Bronx  and Metropolitans will be featured in an upcoming baseball book roundup on Bookreporter.com.

Interesting to see Tim Kurkjian’s book back on the list. He was a Bookshelf  Conversation guest ten years ago, as well as a Q&A subject in 2008! Where has the time gone?

Enough of a representation of Kindle and audio books to list them, even if they’re not an even ten. There were a lot more audio books in Amazon’s Top 100 baseball titles than usual.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,696,886 in books overall; last time, 1,550,540.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,722,750; last time, 3,632,228.

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.