Ball Four

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious look at baseball
Review: Even aside from its baseball aspects, Ball Four probably deserves recognition as the funniest string of anecdotes ever put on paper. There really isn't much that can be said about this book that isn't positive; hilarious, a quick-moving style of writing, interesting stories, and a great picture of what life in a clubhouse is really like. Bouton's limited observations on politics and individuality on a team are interesting, even if they're dated by now. The only drawback to this book is that it won't impact a reader today as it would someone who read it at its publication. For someone like me who has grown up with public salary negotiations and open discussion of the private lives of athletes, there's no shock value or revelation to be had. Nevertheless, even if it's no longer groundbreaking, it's still more than a worthwhile read for anyone.

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Summary: Iconoclast on the Pitching Mound
Review: I read this book when it first came out. It was quite an eye-opener although it may seem tame by today's standards. There was, we were told, an unwritten (and in some cases WRITTEN) rule that what happens in the club house stays in the club house. Jim Bouton certainly trashed that maxim as well as a lot of other sacred icons in "Ball Four". In the process he became more famous for his writing than he ever was for his pitching.

This book is actually a diary of a pitcher's season. Bouton was a flame-throwing pitcher for the Yankees but he blew out his arm when he was still relatively young. He attempted to come back as a knuckle ball pitcher with the Seattle Pilots (remember them?). Pitching on an expansion team in its' first year gave Bouton an interesting perspective. Afterall, his previous service in the majors involved pitching in the World Series for the almighty Yankees. He went from a great team to a lousy team; from being a very good pitcher to a slightly below mediocre pitcher. With this background, the author shares what it was like to be at the top and what it is like to be at the bottom. We go day to day through the season. Bouton critiques his various pitching performances as well as the rest of the expansion team. Much of the book is hilarious, especially the parts about his manager, Joe Schultz. It is, however, Bouton's comments about his former Yankee teammates that have ruffled so many feathers. For example, he ponders how many more home runs Mickey Mantle would have gotten if he hadn't come to so many games hungover. Well, so much for Bouton being invited to Old-timer's games at Yankee Stadium. Yet his book is tame compared to today's slash and burn sports reporters. Mickey actually comes across as a loveable hero rather than the tragic figure many later portayed him as.

Many people have tried to portray the life of a major league athlete. Most have made it too complicated or glamorous. Bouton's version still stands out as the best. He makes it sound like fun. You'll have fun, too, if you read "Ball Four".

Rating:
Summary: Now I Understand...
Review: I have been reading up on Mickey Mantle since seeing the movie 61*, about the Mantle/Maris race to beat Babe Ruth's single season home run record. I checked this book out of the library to see why there was so much hostility towards Jim Bouton, and why he was never invited to NY Yankee Old Timer's Days after writing this book. He always thought it was Mickey Mantle who was keeping him from attending. After Mantle died in 1995, he still didn't get invited - so that shoots that one down. Bouton learned a lesson. People actually LIKED Mickey Mantle and felt offended by what Bouton said about him in "Ball Four."

He starts out talking about how nice Mickey was to him, different things he did that were touching, kind. But then he proceeds to tell us how he had mixed feelings for Mickey because he saw Mickey shut a bus window on a group of kids wanting autographs. And he refused to sign balls in the clubhouse one time. Jim Bouton was never Mickey Mantle, and its too bad he never knew what it was to be hounded day and night and never have a minute of privacy. So Mantle shut a bus window on some kids once. Knowing what I do about the fame Mantle created and endured during his ball playing days, I can't understand why Bouton even found that important enough to write about.

Oh, that's right. Money. He made alot of money writing this book to trash his fellow baseball players. Otherwise, would any of us remember Jim Bouton for anything else?

Rating:
Summary: The First of Its Type and the Best!
Review: I remember reading this book when it first came out and the stir it caused. It was the first time an athlete pulled no punches and described what goes on in the locker room and off the field. Bouton took a lot of heat and was blacklisted by many within MLB for his comments.

The book is actually a diary of Bouton's comback season with the Seattle Pilots (they are now the Milwaukee Brewers). They were an expansion team with a few big name washed-up stars. Bouton, once a fireballer for the New York Yankees, hurt his arm and developed a knuckleball pitch to try to make it back to the bigs. Throughout the book he talks about his outings (mostly in mop-up and other non-critical moments) and you feel his frustration at not being noticed for sometimes excellent pitching.

Not having seen many Pilot games in 1969, I am not sure whether Bouton was fantasizing his greatness with the knuckleball or he actually was the second coming of Hoyt Wilhelm.

Bouton's teammates are quite lovable and memorable, reminding me a lot of the characters from the movie Major Leagues. There have been many books that came out since but this was the first of its type, and in my opinion the best!

Rating:
Summary: A Solid Triple
Review: This books is one of the bests of its kind. It's also one of the first. The tell-all. Jim Bouton takes you on a tour of his 1969 baseball season, most of which was spent with the expansion Seattle Pilots. And this team was so bad that it makes the Tampa Bay Devil Rays look like a World Series contender. But what makes the book work is that Bouton spills it all: boozing in the bullpen, illicit affairs, arguments with the manager. And what sets it over the others of this type of book that followed is that Bouton is intelligent. You actually get an understanding of what makes him tick as a ballplayer. A great read.

Rating:
Summary: A period-piece that will continue to endure
Review: I'm one of the many whose lives were enriched by Ball Four and who gained personal inspiration from it. In addition to all else that the book is, it is the story of someone who at the moment was an underdog, in a difficult and sometimes hostile setting, seeking to bring himself back to a better place, little by little -- AND HE MAKES IT! I'm sure that wasn't a part of the original intent of the book, but it's there, and it's very moving. That moment when Bouton runs into the Astro manager and coaches in the hotel lobby while they're talking about maybe giving him a start, is a great literary moment, and there are many others like it -- simple moments that rise surprisingly to the level of drama because of the book's fine pacing and the humanness of the narrative. Each next edition of the book -- "Ball Five," "Ball Six," "Ball Seven" -- has added significant new chapters. Ball Four is very much a book of that moment in which it originated, but its humanity, wit, and, yes, drama will keep it alive for a very, very long time.

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Summary: True Major League Baseball world revealed !!!!!!
Review: Jim Bouton is not a name that comes up when discussing the all time greats of baseball. However, when discussing the all time greatest baseball novels, his name should come up every time. Ball Four is a fantastic day-in-the-life recounting of a single player's (Bouton's) Major League season - more specifically, the season being 1969, and his playing days that year split between the upstart franchise Seattle Pilots, and the beleagured, relatively new Houston Astros. What sets the novel apart is it's absolutely brutal, truthful (but very taboo) telling of the player's and coach's personalities and lifestyles. Not a single vulgarity or shocking sequence is missed in Bouton's daily log he kept which eventually became this famous non-fiction piece. It also created more enemies in the game than he could've imagined. He only played one and a half more seasons after it's publication, and is a testament to a very intelligent, and brave athlete who wrote with a beautifully relaxing, very funny, and down-to-earth tone. A great read for true baseball fans.

Rating:
Summary: A Baseball Memoir
Review: What can I say about this book? I used to read it every summer. I read it by date (June 9, I read June 9 entry) tracked the stats etc. I first read this book in eighth grade. It didn't shatter the myth of Mickey Mantle, other ballplayers or the state of the sacred game, in general. I was a METS FAN anyway. What it did do is make light that ballplayers aren't unconditional heroes. They are human beings and rather tame compared to some of today's criminals. (I mean athletes). First time through I laughed at loud and each successive time I fondly remembered scenes painted so vividly by Bouton. For me it was like re-watching a favorite movie such as Say Anything, The Graduate or When Harry Met Sally. Ballplayers are traveling for months at a time and the same issues written here are also found in "reality shows". Ball Four was ahead of its time for this reason but also for the fact that no one was writting an insider book like this back in 1970. My generation of sports fans can quote from this book, still today.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Great!
Review: Every so many years I re-read this book. It brings back a lot of memories of that 1969 baseball season. That was the only year of the Seattle Pilots who later moved to Milwaukee. This book was way ahead of its time when released and never seems to get out-dated. I remember Bouton also wrote a book about his comeback later with the Houston Astros which was almost as good.

Both books are a must for the true baseball fan!

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Summary: Jim Bouton takes sports fans into the locker room and beyond
Review: Who would have thought that when Jim Bouton agreed to keep a diary during the 1969 baseball season, that "Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckle-ball in the Big Leagues" would end up being listed as one of the Books of the Century by the New York Public Library. But there it is, nestled in between Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" and Stephen King's "Carrie" under the category of Popular Culture & Mass Entertainment. The book is cited as being "the first ripple of a tidal wave of 'tell-all' books that have become commonplace not only in sports, but also in politics, entertainment, and other realms of contemporary public life." But more importantly "Ball Four" totally changed the relationship between baseball players and their fans.

Bouton had achieved early success as a hard throwing right-handed pitcher for the New York Yankees. But by 1969 the Yankee dynasty was officially over, Mickey Mantle had retired, and Bouton was trying to return to the majors by throwing the infamous knuckle-ball. Signed by the expansion team Seattle Pilots, in their only season of existence before moving to Milwaukee, Bouton had his ups and downs as a relief pitcher, but was successful enough to be traded to the Houston Astros who were in the middle of a pennant race. However, little of that mattered once Bouton started talking about what happened in the lockeroom.

"Ball Four" was considered scandalous because Bouton frankly talked about baseball players having affairs, popping greenies (suddenly in the news again because of the current steroid controversy), and playing wickedly funny practical jokes on each other (Jesus Alou is the greatest victim of all time). The book's impact can be summed up in one particular story, when Bouton relates how Mantle once hit a home run when he still could not see straight because of a hard night of drinking. Once baseball's golden boy was tarnished in this manner, nobody else in the game had a chance. Bouton kicked down the door to the locker room big time.

The book was considered irreverent and was denounced by the baseball establishment when it was published in 1970. But the problem was that it was (a) very truthful and (b) even funnier than it was truthful. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn called Bouton in on the carpet, but it turns out the truth is indeed a defense. The legacy of "Ball Four" today is seen not so much in similar books but in baseball films, where movies from "Bull Durham" to "Major Leagues" have captured the wonderful and wacky environment of a baseball locker room. For more about the book's reaction read Bouton's sequel, "I'm Glad You Didn't Take It Personally."