Baseball Best-Sellers, March 8, 2024

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 did with them. An asterisk denotes a book making its debut on the BBS list.

PRINT

Baseball Prospectus 2024
Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski
The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
Ron Shandler’s 2024 Baseball Forecaster and Encyclopedia of Fanalytics
The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2024, by Joe Pisapia
Rotoman’s Fantasy Baseball Guide 2024: From Acuña to Zunino
The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and Tom Underwood
The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis

KINDLE BOOKS

Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, by Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King
Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, by Jonathan Eig
The Wingmen
Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life, by Richard Ben Cramer
The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, by Jane Leavy
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, by Jane Leavy
Wait Till Next Year, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James S. Hirsch
Fifty-Nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, & the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had, by Edward Achorn
The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2024, by Joe Pisapia

AUDIBLE

Note: Amazon has changed the way they list audiobooks. No longer under the general category of “biography and memoir,” they are now treated in their own baseball/softball category. Here’s the general link to the section where you will find further links to the individual titles, their reader/narrators, and samples. Note further that these are updated regularly and the top ten list below might no longer be the same.

Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
Why We Love Baseball
The Baseball 100
Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (narrated by the author)
Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury (read by the author)
Banana Ball, by Jesse Kole with Don Yeager
Heads-Up Baseball 2.0, by Tom Hanson
Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
The Greatest Summer in Baseball History: How the ’73 Season Changed Us Forever, by John Rosengren
Baseball Heaven: Up Close and Personal, What It Was Really Like in the Major Leagues, by Peter Golenbock

So much for new. Nothing in the print section but a few new items in audio, including Golenbock’s latest.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 1,987,641 overall in books; last time, 1,627,796. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,883,375; last time, 2,849,591.

Just for fun: Greenberg ranks 2,276 in the category of “baseball biographies.” The top ten (and this time I’m not editing the listing as I would normally do):

The Wingmen (Print)
Luckiest Man (Kindle)
The Wingmen (Kindle)
The Most Incredible Baseball Stories Ever Told (Print)
A Grand Slam for God: A Journey from Baseball Star to Catholic Priest (Print)
In a League of Her Own: Celebrating Female Firsts in Sports (Print)
Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life (Kindle)
The Big Fella (Kindle)
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy (Kindle)
Wait Till Next Year (Kindle)

Unfortunately, the list only includes the top 100 books, so I’ll never know who’s 2,275.

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.

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.