Baseball Book Blog

The latest edition to the library was actually something I preordered several months ago.  Indians Journal continues a series of books authored by John Snyder and the differ from your standard statistical look at a team.  These books are more like periodic diary of each season along with some general stats and information.  The decade by decade looks are also interesting and provide some additional historical content for the team.  There’s also some information on pre-Cleveland Indians teams which includes some content on the infamous 1899 Cleveland Spiders.

You can pick up similar books on the Reds, Red Sox, Cardinals and Cubs.  I’m anxiously awaiting a Tigers Journal.

For the second week in a row, we have a new number one book on the Amazon.com top ten baseball book list.  This week it’s H.A. Dorfman’s The Mental ABC’s of Pitching.  The book came out in 2000 and it looks like a New York Times editorial a couple of weeks ago is what caused all of the interest in the book.  It looks like an interesting read and it almost looks more like a personal development book (which I buy and read) then a true baseball book.  Worth checking out.  Dorfmann’s other book, The Mental Game of Baseball, also made the top ten list.  Speaking of the list, here it is…

1) The Mental ABC’s of Pitching
2) Yankee Stadium: The Official Retrospective
3) Vindicated
4) Baseball Prospectus 2008
5) We Would Have Played for Nothing
6) Moneyball
7) The 33 Year Old Rookie
Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends
9) The Mental Game of Baseball
10) But Didn’t We Have Fun

The only new book to the list was Dorfmann’s aforementioned The Mental Game of Baseball.  Bill James Goldmine is a casualty this week and Baseball Prospectus 2008 falls all the to four.  This isn’t a knock on them because it’s an exceptional book.  They held the top spot for several weeks which is no small task and the fact that they’re still fourth after all these weeks shows the staying power of the franchise.

I know the past few weeks the only content I’ve provided is the top ten list but I’m hoping for that to change soon.  I’m making my way through a few books and I have a few new ones on the way.  In the meantime, keeping on my regular Sunday schedule has at least given me something to write about here.  Anyway, here’s the list.

1) Yankee Stadium: The Official Retrospective
2) Baseball Prospectus 2008
3) We Would Have Played for Nothing
4) The Mental ABC’s of Pitching
5) Vindicated
6) Moneyball
7) The 33 Year Old Rookie
Bill James Goldmine 2008
9) Red Sox Rule
10) Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends

Most important, Baseball Prospectus has been dethroned.  They’ve topped the list every week so far since I started this but the Yankee Stadium Retrospective got a big bump and it knocked BP down to number two.  I have a feeling BP will back on top here soon though.  There were also three debuts to the list.  Fay Vincent’s “We Would Have Played for Nothing” made it all the way to number three while The Mental ABC’s of Pitching lands at number four.  The Mental ABC’s book isn’t new so I’m wondering where it got mentioned to give it such a big pop.  Rob Neyer’s new book just made the list at number. 

Bill James Goldmine fell all the way to number eight and they could be dropping off soon.  I’m getting the Rob Neyer book in the mail soon and I’m hoping to get some more formal reviews done in the next week or so.