Baseball Best-Sellers, June 12, 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. Crossroads: A Memoir in Baseball and Life, by Dusty Baker
2. Nolan: The Singular Life of an American Original, by Tim Brown
3. 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)
4. The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR and America at the Crossroads, by Randall Sullivan
5. The Baseball 100, by Joe Posanski
6. The Magical Game: The Spirit and History of Baseball’s Superstitions, Rituals, and Curses, by Addy Baird
7. Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team, by A.M. Gittlitz
8. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
9. The Incredible Chicago Cubs Trivia Book: 300 Questions for the Super-Fan, by Al Yellon *
10. The Bosses of the Bronx: The Endless Drama of the Yankees Under the House of Steinbrenner, by Mike Vaccaro

KINDLE

1. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments
2. Off-The-Record, by Anthony French
3. I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography, by Jackie Robinson and Alfred Duckett
4. Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, by Jane Leavy
5. The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports , by Jeff Passan
6. Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, by Jason Turbow

AUDIO BOOKS

1. Moneyball (narrated by Scott Brick)
2. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (narrated by the author)
3. The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter, by Ian O’Connor
4. Ninety Percent Mental: An All-Star Player Turned Mental Skills Coach Reveals the Hidden Game of Baseball, by Bob Tewksbury and Scott Miller (narrated by the author)
5. The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
6. The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It, by Lawrence Ritter (narrated by the author)
7. Baseball, by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (narrated by Burns)
8. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant

I’m surprised this is the first time I can remember seeing The Glory of Their Times on the list. It should be right up their with Moneyball and The Science of Hitting, especially the audio version. A classic and highly recommended.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,284,3082,179,458 in books overall; last time, 2,284,308.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,792,355;  last time, 2,827,971.

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.