Rating: 
Summary: I'm giving every kid on my Little League team a copy.
Review: I am a Little League coach in Orangeburg, South Carolina. I just read Ball Four, and next spring, I am giving a copy to every kid on my Little League team, of which I am the head coach. Well, not every player, just the pitching staff. I'm sure that the league offices up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania will reimburse me, because this is one book that no ten year old aspiring ballplayer, particularly pitchers, should be without. Within the book, Jim Bouton tells about the fundamentals of baseball in a way that I could never communicate. It covers everything, from what to do and what not to do in preparation for a pitching start to how to how to throw the knuckleball to how pitching can take a toll on your arm if you don't use the proper fundamentals (like Steve Barber, or Jim Bouton, for that matter). I only wish that this book was around when I was a youngster; I would have been a much better player. Jim Bouton has written a fine book about the ins and outs of baseball, and I'm sure that every parent of every kid on my team, as well as the team's sponsor (John Birch Society, Orangeburg Chapter), will be happy that the kids are taking home this educational and informative reading material.
Rating:
Summary: An outstanding book
Review: In all my time of being involved with baseball, playing baseball, and coaching baseball on both the little league and the high school levels, never have I read a book that is this informative. I reccomend this book to any little leaguer trying to get the fundamentals of baseball down pat. Whether it be something as complex as teaching the proper execution of the drag bunt, or something as simple and elementary as good sportsmanship, this book covers it all. It is a wholesome book, and wholesome, clean entertainment is so hard to find these days. As official scorer, I score this one a hit!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Good read, but not too shocking.
Review: This book is a great journal of a marginal player for an expansion baseball team. It has got great stories, great gossip, emotional ups and downs, and is an insightful read.I, being so young (meaning desensitized by today's culture), I found nothing truly shocking. Though it must have been pretty ground shaking in 1970, it's tamer than I thought it would be. It's a good book and granted it was the start of the trend that exposes athletes and heroes and mere humans, but if it was released today, most people would not have given it a second thought.
Rating:
Summary: Ball Four
Review: Ball four was a great book because it brought to light a side of baseball that had never been seen or even imagined for that matter. Bouton's anecdotal prose illuminates not only his struggle to hang on but also illustrates heroes throughout the game. This is a must read and I rank it very high on my lsit of all time favorite books.
Rating:
Summary: Great story about "teammates" working together
Review: I know nothing about Baseball, mainly because I am English, and I still know nothing about Baseball but this is one of the best sports books I have ever read. Funny, moving, clever but mainly funny it is about a man struggling to get buy watching and involved with a load of others guys struggling to get by, they are allegedly on the same team - but it is hard to tell. I came to this book because of an English Soccer book 'Only a Game' written by Emanon Dunphy. Dunphy based his diary on 'Ball Four' and I liked 'Only a Game' so much I bought the original. I recommend heartily 'Only a Game' it has the same crazy, abrupt and crazily sporting relations that make 'Ball Four' so revealing and funny - but the original is still the best. One of the few books I've read where all I want to do is sit and read and the rest of the world can go hang.
Rating:
Summary: Ball Four
Review: Simply one of the best books around. Great for a fan of baseball and great for a fan of life's stories.
Rating:
Summary: The first, and still the best
Review: Since this book first appeared, many players have written "tell all" books. But Bouton is a guy who actually reads books, and whose eye for detail and observation, not to mention comic timing, make this a truly outstanding piece of writing. Baseball, in all its warty glory, is as fully revealed as the subject of one of the players' infamous "beaver hunts." Every baseball fan should read this book (that is, once you are old enough to read dirty words). Oh, by the way, GO YANKS!
Rating:
Summary: A Throughly Entertaining Book
Review: This is a great book to read, even if you're not a big baseball fan. Jim Bouton just has a knack for telling a great story. From reading the book, he must have been the life of the party with the team members but a pain in the butt to the team management with his opinionated views. He really gives some insight to the up-until-then unpublicized life of a major league player from the pressurized meetings with the general manager to the dugout and locker room antics. There are some funny stories but sometimes he goes off on a tangent about political views on Vietnam or racism. But overall it's a great baseball book and you'll have a hard time putting it down once you buy it.
Rating:
Summary: How can you hate this guy?
Review: While the baseball world seems to abhor him for being honest, I thought Bouton's book was open and relatively fair. Whenever he had something negative to say (always documented by a detailed story), he mentioned the positives about the people involved too. Mantle and Joe Schultz are good examples. A prececessor to the "tell all" biographies of today that seem to be written for shock value and one upsmanship.
Rating:
Summary: The Holy Grail of Baseball books
Review: This book is the greatest baseball book ever, bar none! I make it a point to read this book every five years or so, to renew my warmth for the game. Since I read this book, I've begun collecting Seattle Pilots memorabilia, including a replica Bouton #56 and a pilots cap. I rate this and Connie Hawkins' "Foul!" as the two greatest sports books ever.
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