Baseball Best-Sellers, March 20, 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. 100 Years of Who’s Who in Baseball, by Douglas Lyons (Bookshelf review here)


2. Baseball Prospectus 2015


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


4. Baseball America 2015 Prospect Handbook: The 2015 Expert guide to Baseball Prospects and MLB Organization Rankings


5. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams


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


7. The Baseball Drill Book (The Drill Book Series), American Baseball Coaches Association


8. 2015 Baseball Forecaster: An Encyclopedia of Fanalytics, by Ron Shandler


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


10. Coaching Youth Baseball the Ripken Way, by Cal Ripken Jr.

Still surprised how well Who’s Who is doing. I keep waiting for people to catch on, but perhaps the basic wrap-up for each season is sufficient for most readers.

Again the selections are heavy on the coaching aspects again as schools and youth teams gear up for real. Hope the weather is better where they are than where I am.

I also feel like saying that Ball Four is frequently in the top 10 overall, but as an e-book. Unlike Moneyball, which is still widely available in print form,  I guess the same is not the case for Bouton’s classic.

Here’s the latest monthly (March) New York Times sports best-seller list (10 plus 10 more). Jeter Unfiltered drops to nine with no other baseball titles in the top 20.

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 20, 2015