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. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski (My review on Bookreporter.com) Ω
  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. Unhittable: How Technology, Mavericks, and Innovators Engineered Baseball’s New Era of Pitching Dominance, by Rob Friedman (coming March 24) *
  5. The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2026, by Joe Pisapia
  6. Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America, by Howard Bryant
  7. Ron Shandler’s 2026 Baseball Forecaster and Encyclopedia of Fanalytics (My Bookshelf Conversation with Shandler from 2015 here)
  8. The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball, by John W. Miller. (My review on Bookreporter.com) Ω
  9. Baseball Obscura 2026, by David J. Fleming
  10. Just Win This Pitch!: The Complete Mental Game System for High School and College Baseball, by Dr. Curt Ickes *

KINDLE

  1. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski (My review on Bookreporter.com) Ω
  2. Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leerhsen
  3. Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball, by Keith O’Brien Ω
  4. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City, by Jonathan Mahler
  5. The Night Casey Was Born: The True Story Behind the Great American Ballad “Casey at the Bat”, by John Evangelist Walsh
  6. Pitch by Pitch: My View of One Unforgettable Game, by Bob Gibson and Lonnie Wheeler

AUDIO BOOKS

  1. The Baseball 100, by Posnanski
  2. Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It, by Jane Leavy (narrated by the author)
  3. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (narrated by the author)
  4. Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton and Tim Keown
  5. Mickey & Billy: The Glory and Tragedy of a Yankee Friendship, by Tony Castro
  6. Baseball, by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (narrated by Burns)
  7. Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series that Changed Baseball, by Luke Epplin
  8. Summer of ’49, by David Halberstam
  9. The MVP Machine: How Baseball’s New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players, by Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchick
  10. Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, by Jane Leavy

Two books new to the Bookshelf crack the print top ten: Rob Friedman’s Unhittable and Curt Ickes’ “primer” on the game for school players.

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. And once again, even though it’s technically not a book, Fantasy Baseball Index Book 2026, lists in the #1 print 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 283,131 in books overall (#11 in Literary Bibliographies & Indexes); last time, 3,302,103.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,662,951; last time, 3,576,181.

And that’s not a misprint, re: 501. Can’t remember the last time it was in the top 500,000 and that makes me even more curious as to how these rankings are determined.

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.

 

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From The New York Times by Richard Sandomir:

Bruce Froemming, an authoritative, sometimes brusque but widely respected umpire who called the third-most games in Major League Baseball history, including four no-hitters from behind home plate, died on Feb. 25 in Milwaukee. He was 86.

https://73f3e7d5672db1849e6c-6434aaf008a29447cc424990bc6a54a7.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/stories/202602260126/1140x_a10-7_cTC/Obit-Froemming-Baseball-1_1772150353.jpg

Unfortunately, Froemming — who umped more than 5,100 games over 37 (!) seasons — did not publish a book. Too bad. I bet he had a lot of interesting stories to tell.

For lack of more “official” information, here’s his entry from Wikipedia and Baseball-Reference.com.

Froemming was born in Milwaukee. Here’s his obit from his hometown Journal-Sentinel.

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This New York Times piece in a recent Book Review supplement that talks about the decline and death of the “mass paperback” was the inspiration for today’s Throwback Thursday entry.

Before the invention of the e-reader, people actually had to carry around books. Can you imagine?

But the publishing industry was considerate. They came up with a type of paperback that was cheap and relatively light, especially helpful when you were desperate for some reading material at the airport or bus station. (Years ago, when my family was on a European vacation, I had to look long and hard to find something in English at a train station in Barcelona. I had to settle on a 500-page historical novel about Jews in medieval Spain.) When I travel by car for vacation, I can pack a box with a few titles. But as much as I enjoy the feel of a book in my hands, I know I have to make concessions from time to time, hence my Kindle.

I used to love going to the used book store where I could pick up something like these for fifty cents.

Now, a copy of one of the few remaining baseball magazines will set you back $15. More on that in a future post.

 

 

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♦ I love finding baseball-related stories in unusual publications. Here’s one from The Atlantic  featuring former MLB pitcher Steve Trout and what he’s doing in his post-playing career.

♦ Here’s another from the White Coat Investor site: “I Figured My Childhood Obsession Would Make Me a Millionaire; Boy, Was I Wrong.” This harkens back to the entry I just posted about baseball cards. Thankfully, since I never really concerned myself with my collection’s values, the money aspects never bothered me.

https://www.nooknews21.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Trading-Pile.jpg

♦ According to the “overhead,” this story on “7 Baseball Books You Must Read In 2026” which appears on a site simply calling itself “BookClub” is “AI Generated.” Hmmm. In addition to everything else this by-lined article brings to mind, I have to wonder: since none of these are titles coming out this year, why the “must?” Granted, most of them are considered classics (although don’t get me started on my thoughts about The Art of Fielding), but two of the seven are fiction and don’t strike me as requiring immediate attention for the upcoming season. As for the rest, what’s the rush?

♦ Ed Alstrom, who is about to begin his 23rd season as the organist at Yankee Stadium, will talk about that job, demonstrate how it gets done, and tell stories about his fabulous experiences at the Stadium on March 31 at the Englewood Public Library in New Jersey. More details here.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/07VhaN_rgC0/hqdefault.jpg

♦ In honor of Women’s History Month, the Hall of Fame is hosting “Dirt on Their Skirts,” a free virtual field trip on the history of women in baseball on March 10 from 4-5 p.m. Registration is required.

 

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Fool’s Gold?

March 3, 2026 · 0 comments

Whenever I hear about “the Golden Age of baseball,” I have to ask, who makes that decision? I imagine my golden age would be different than someone thirty years younger (or older). My GA includes people like Mantle, Mays, and Koufax; yours might be Piazza, Griffey Jr., and Barry Bonds.

So this headline from the “collectible” section of the Sports Illustrated website — “5 Undervalued Cards from the Golden Age of Baseball” — caught my eye.

I would not call myself a “serious” collector. I don’t know any of the lingo associated with the hobby. I cross my fingers that some of my older cards — and by that I mean from the 1970s — might be worth something, but I’m not in it for the money.

So I was curious: what would this writer consider the Golden Age.

The answer: pretty “classic,” to my mind at least: the late 40s and early-mid 50s featuring such players as Bob Feller, Eddie Mathews, Johnny Mize, Larry Doby, and Duke Snider. Why these players’ cards in particular? You’ll have to read the article to find out.

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I read it in the Times

February 27, 2026 · 0 comments

Which used to be code for “it must be true.”

This is why you have to read until the end of the article.

Trump Has Lost Touch with Reality,” a “conversation” between Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens in an opinion piece in today’s print edition of The New York Times, concludes with a tribute to the late Bill Mazeroski:

[E]ven though I’m not a sports guy, I was moved by David Margolick’s magnificent obituary for Bill Mazeroski, the Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman who, in the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game of the 1960 World Series against the Yankees, hit a winning home run off a fastball from Ralph Terry and then more or less danced his way around the bases. The entire obit is great, but it’s Margolick’s kicker that really got me by the throat:

      A 14-year-old schoolboy named Andy Jerpe, who had left the game early to help his mother prepare dinner but had lingered outside the fence, retrieved Mazeroski’s home run ball. When he presented it to Mazeroski in the dressing room, the Pirates second baseman signed it, then gave it back.

      “You keep it, son,” he told him. “The memory is good enough for me.”

      One sunny day the following spring, the boy lost the ball in the weeds during a pickup game. Estimates are it would have fetched up to $1 million today.

For all any of us know, that ball is still in the weeds. Someone should go find it.

Pirates legend Bill Mazeroski dies at 89 | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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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. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis Ω
  2. The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2026, by Joe Pisapia
  3. Ron Shandler’s 2026 Baseball Forecaster and Encyclopedia of Fanalytics (My Bookshelf Conversation with Shandler from 2015 here)
  4. Baseball Obscura 2026, by David J. Fleming
  5. 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)
  6. Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America, by Howard Bryant
  7. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
  8. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
  9. The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball, by John W. Miller. (My review on Bookreporter.com) Ω
  10. The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski Ω

KINDLE

  1. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski (My review on Bookreporter.com) Ω
  2. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City, by Jonathan Mahler
  3. Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of ’76, by Dan Epstein
  4. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball, by Tom Tango et al
  5. Nolan: The Singular Life of an American Original, by Tim Brown

AUDIO BOOKS

  1. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (narrated by the author)
  2. Ninety Percent Mental: An All-Star Player Turned Mental Skills Coach Reveals the Hidden Game of Baseball, by Bob Tewksbury (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

The Science of Hitting returns to the list after several weeks’ absence. Other than that, no real change. Once again, Fantasy Baseball Index Book 2026 — a magazine — lists in the #1 spot among print BBS. Given that Smart Baseball came out almost 10 years ago, I wonder how much of what Law wrote at the time might have changed?

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

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 3,302,103 in Books overall; last time, 3,198,974.  Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,576,181; last time, 3,503,046.

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.

 

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From December 14, 2016: “How do you solve a problem like too many baseball books?

attic gen

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♦ The passing of Pirates Hall of Famer Bill Mazersoki makes tributes like this one — “Maz, You’re Up” from the Pittsburgh quarterly by Richard “Pete” Peterson — all the more poignant.

♦ From MLB.com: “As he recovered from a rare third ulnar collateral ligament surgery on his right elbow, Reds reliever Tejay Antone wrote a book that’s a combination autobiography and instructional titled “The Tommy John Protocol.” An editor has been hired, and Antone hopes the book releases this summer. Even though one event hasn’t actually happened yet, the book has a happy ending.”

♦ Also from MLB.com, this profile of Gerald Early, author of Play Harder: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America,” particularly appropriate as we wind down Black History Month.

♦ Also from MLB.com, this profile of Darryl Strawberry, whose new book, Another Life: Discovering the Healing Power of Purpose on My Long Journey from Player to Preacher,” written with Jerome Preisler, is due out in August.

♦ From The Japan News, this story about the Japanese version of Shohei Ohtani‘s new children’s book, Decoy Saves Opening Day.

♦ Sports Collectors Daily has a fun series, “Who Drew the Classic Topps Baseball Cartoons?” This is the fifth installment. Funny how you hardly ever think of how the cards are actually composed.

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To buy, or not to buy?

February 24, 2026 · 0 comments

That is the question.

I’ve been collecting Topps Heritage sets for a few years now. I am enchanted by the homages to the designs of my youth, especially the early 60s when I started the hobby in earnest. I figured this might be a good way for me to familiarize myself with today’s players. One knock on the producers is the lack of consistency. Some teams might have 25+ cards while others get just in the mid-teens. How are these decisions made, I wonder?

I only discovered the Heritage series relatively recently and have spent a lot of time (and money) on eBay trying to catch up. Some of the earlier sets are out of my price comfort zone, pushed up by rookie cards of the modern stars.

So this piece from Sports Collectors Daily came in my mailbox this morning: “2026 Topps Heritage Baseball Melds Past, Present.”

This year’s release mirrors the 1977 set.

1977 Topps Baseball Set Checklist, Info, Key Cards, Rookies and More

This was not one of my favorites when it originally came out. The design didn’t do anything for me. Fairly plain and to my mind a bit lazy. I would love to be at Topps when they figure out the annual format. (One of the first things I notice was that the team names now come with a registered trademark symbol. That’s funny.)

Don’t know if I will end up buying this one. In my day, the little bonuses would come in the packs. Now they’re a whole extra subset (so many subsets) which drives up the cost.

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Is there any “ordinary” player in the history of the game who became a legend overnight like Bill Mazeroski?

Any fan worth their salt knows that “Maz” hit the home run in the bottom of the ninth in Game Seven of the 1960 Fall Classic against the New York Yankees to give his Pittsburgh Pirates an unlikely world championship. It is till considered one of the game’s greatest moments.

Mazeroski died on February 20 at the age of 89. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times. (The tribute from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is behind a paywall.)

He spent his entire 17-year career as a Pirate, appearing in 2,163 games and batting .260 with 138 home runs and 853 RBI.  Despite such relatively low numbers, Mazeroski was named to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 2001, based 10 All-Star honors, eight Gold Glove Awards, and his leadership for the Pirates.

He was the topic of Twin Killing: The Bill Mazeroski Story, published in 1995 by John Bird.

UPDATE: It totally slipped my mind that Mazeroski was a long-time teammate (1956-1968) of ElRoy Face, who died Feb. 12 at the age of 97.

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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.

 

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Throwback Thursday: Et tu, Porky?

Baseball and pop culture

As per Frederick Frommer, author of several baseball titles either on his own or with his father, Harvey, comes this appreciation of “Baseball Bugs,” a Looney Tunes favorite that made its debut in 1946. Frommer notes, “The 1946 cartoon is so packed with funny gags, clever puns, imaginative imagery and lively music that it’s still […]

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Bits and Pieces, February 18, 2026

2026 title

From WBGO Radio, “Legendary sportswriter and author Jerry Izenberg tells the story of black baseball in his novel ‘Damn You, Josh Gibson: A Ghost Story’” From Sports Collectors Daily: “New Book Chronicles Fake Ty Cobb Items and Pegs Biographer as Source” From the USA Today network: “Celebrate the Detroit Tigers storied history with this hardcover […]

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Lest We Forget: Jesse Jackson and Robert Duvall

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

What is going on these days? So many legendary figures passing away. I guess it’s inevitable. The heroes of our younger days have grown older and death comes to us all. While neither Jesse Jackson nor Robert Duvall were directly associated with baseball, they both had seminal if ancillary moments around the national pastime. Jesse […]

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Lest We Forget: ElRoy Face

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

The relief hurler who won 18 games and saved another ten for the 1959 Pittsburgh Pirates, died February 12 at the age of 97. Here’s his obituary from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The New York Times by Richard Goldstein. ElRoy Face got a relatively late start: he made his debut as a 25-year-old in 1953. After spending […]

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The Bookshelf Conversations #206: Mike Shannon

"Bookshelf Conversations"

Mike Shannon and I go way back. One of the first book reviews I ever had published was with Spitball Magazine, where he serves as editor-in-chief. He is also one of the only Bookshelf Conversation guests I have ever broken bread with. A few years back, I had the opportunity to attend a CASEY Awards ceremony […]

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Lest We Forget: David M. Jordan

Lest We Forget

The author of such books as The As:  A Baseball History; The Athletics of Philadelphia: Connie Mack’s White Elephants, 1901-1954; A Tiger in His Time: Hal Newhouser and the Burden of Wartime Ball; and Pete Rose: A Biography, died January 24 at the age of 91. From his obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer: [Jordan] was fanatical […]

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Be very afraid (Friday the 13th)

"Oddballs"

Or not. For some, 13 is actually a lucky number. But for others… Baseball is notorious for have superstitions. Remember this scene from Bull Durham (WARNING: Explicit language) Here are just a few books that deal with baseball superstitions: The Incomplete Book of Baseball Superstitions, Rituals, and Oddities, by Mike Blake Field of Magic: Baseball’s […]

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Baseball Best-Sellers, February 13, 2026

"Oddballs"

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 […]

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