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.
- Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis Ω
- 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)
- The Bosses of the Bronx: The Endless Drama of the Yankees Under the House of Steinbrenner, by Mike Vaccaro
- Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski Ω
- Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas, by Jesse Cole
- The Baseball 100, by Posnanski
- Unhittable: How Technology, Mavericks, and Innovators Engineered Baseball’s New Era of Pitching Dominance, by Rob Friedman
- The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
- Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team, by A.M. Glittzlitz
- Heads-Up Baseball : Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time, by
KINDLE
- Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball, by Keith O’Brien
- The Physics of Baseball: Third Edition, by Robert Adair
- Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball, by George F. Will
- Seasons in Hell: With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and, “the Worst Baseball Team in History”—The 1973–1975 Texas Rangers, by Mike Shropshire
- The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers, by Bill James
- Thurm: Memories of a Forever Yankee, by Thurman Munson with Marty Appel
- The Cincinnati Reds of the 1970s: A Dynasty for the Ages, by Bill Brown
- Late Innings, by Roger Angell
- It’s a Beautiful Day for Baseball: The National Pastime in the 1960s, by Doug Kurkul
AUDIO BOOKS
- Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (narrated by the author)
- So You Think You Know Baseball?: A Fan’s Guide to the Official Rules, by Peter Meltzer
- A Damn Near Perfect Game: Reclaiming America’s Pastime, by Joe Kelly with Rob Bradford
- 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)
- Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession, by David Jamieson
- The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy
- Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life In the Minor Leagues of Baseball, by John Feinstein
- Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess, by Evan Drellich
- Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, by Jonathan Eig
- 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
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.
Metropolitans and Bosses of the Bronx were a part of this feature review which appeared on Bookreporter.com recently.
Looking at the Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers, I am reminded of how quickly such topics can change. Dozens of new skippers have come and gone since this came out in 1997.
Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,299,452, in books overall; last time, 1,713,187. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 3,484,272; last time, 3,170,197.
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.