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

KINDLE

1. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City, by Jonathan Mahler
2. The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow
3. Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball, by Keith O’Brien
4. Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball, by George F. Will
5. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
6. Baseball As It Was: Building Champions Before Free Agency Changed Everything, by John Ferling
7. It’s a Beautiful Day for Baseball: The National Pastime in the 1960s, by Doug Kurkul
8. I’m Fascinated by Sacrifice Flies: Inside the Game We All Love, by Tim Kurkjian

AUDIO BOOKS

1. Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
2. Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess, by Evan Drellich
3. The Boys of Summer, by Roger Kahn
4. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
5. 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)
6. 72 Stories: From the Baseball Collection of Geddy Lee, by Lee (narrated by the author)

FYI, for those who were concerned, I did get my Vermont Lake Monsters cap.

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. Same could be said for Ball Four, which pops up frequently.

I noted in yesterday’s “Throwback Thursday” entry, Moneyball and The Science of Hitting are just as popular now as they were 10 years ago as evidenced by their inclusion yet again on the BBS list.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 1,713,187 in books overall; last time, 535,372.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,170,197;  last time, 2,504,441.

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.