Baseball Best-Sellers, August 14, 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. The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
3. Nolan: The Singular Life of an American Original, by Tim Brown (my review on Bookreporter)
4. Unhittable: How Technology, Mavericks, and Innovators Engineered Baseball’s New Era of Pitching Dominance, by Rob Friedman
5. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski (my review on Bookreporter)
6. The Baseball 100, by Posnanski
7. The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports, by Jeff Passan
8. Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas, by Jesse Cole
9. Crossroads: A Memoir in Baseball and Life, by Dusty Baker
10. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood

KINDLE

1. Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It, by Jane Leavy
2. Skipper: Why Baseball Managers Matter and Always Will, by Scott Miller
3. Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, by Eric Nussbaum (my review on Bookreporter.com)
4. The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America, by Posnanski
5. The Cincinnati Reds of the 1970s: A Dynasty for the Ages, by Bill Brown
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. The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923, by Robert Weintraub
8. Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball, by George F. Will
9. It’s a Beautiful Day for Baseball: The National Pastime in the 1960s, by Doug Kurkul

AUDIO BOOKS

1. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton
2. 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 Pearlman (read by the author)
3. Baseball, by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (narrated by Burns)
4. 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
5. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City, by Jonathan Mahler
6. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
7. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah
8. 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)
9. Summer of ’49, by David Halberstam

Nothing new enough to comment.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 1,864,003 in books overall; last time, 987,429.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,463,656; last time, 3,373,435.

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.