Baseball Best-Sellers, March 13, 2015

Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message.

So without further ado, here are the top ten baseball books as per Amazon.com, as of this posting.

Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); because I’m old school.

Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them. But it’ll be close enough for government work.

Caveat 3: Sometimes they’ll try to pull one over on you and include a book within a category that doesn’t belong. I’m using my discretion to eliminate such titles from my list. For example, for some reason a recent listing included Tarnished Heels: How Unethical Actions and Deliberate Deceit at the University of North Carolina Ended the “The Carolina Way”, which, far as I can tell, is not at all about baseball, at least not in the main. For the sake of brevity, I will be omitting the subtitles, which have become ridiculously long in in some cases in recent years, also at my discretion.

1. Baseball Prospectus 2015


2. Baseball America 2015 Prospect Handbook: The 2015 Expert Guide to Baseball Prospects and MLB Organization Rankings


3. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis


4. Jeter Unfiltered, by Derek Jeter (Bookshelf review here).


5. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams


6. 2015 Baseball Forecaster: An Encyclopedia of Fanalytics, by Ron Shandler


7. The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman


8. Heads-Up Baseball : Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time, by Tom Hanson and Ken Ravizza


9. 2015 Minor League Baseball Analyst, by Rob Gordon


10. The 2015 Prospect Digest Handbook, by Joseph Werner

Note: One book that appeared in the top 10 has been omitted because if there’s any baseball to it, it appears to be strictly tangential. Looks like it’s time to get serious about your (or your kids’) baseball career and/or fantasy team with almost all of the titles focusing on playing the game on the field and assessing the talent that’s out there. New to this is is Werner’s Digest Handbook. 

Here’s the latest monthly (February) New York Times sports best-seller list (10 plus 10 more). Jeter Unfiltered remains in the eighth spot. Glory Days in Tribe Town, which follows the fates of the Cleveland Indians by Terry Pluto and Tom Hamilton, is lucky 13 and the only other baseball title in the lineup. Look for more baseball titles to populate the list in the next monthly revision.

Not on either list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Ya’ll are gonna do something about that, right?

If you have read it, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing a review for the Amazon page. There haven’t been any in awhile. Doesn’t have to be long (or even complimentary, if you didn’t like it), but anything would be appreciated. And thanks to those who have.

Baseball Best-Sellers, March 13, 2015