Rating: 
Summary: Ball Four
Review: I thought it was very funny when I first read it, but the attitude that he can trash so many other people is a little hard to take. He apparently made no attempt to understand Mickey Mantle but felt okay about slamming him for drinking too much and yet wanted to make sure everyone knew he (Bouton) was a great guy for supporting civil rights and adopting a kid. The book was an attempt to copy "Instant Replay", but somehow Bouton and his editor thought it was okay to put in many negative comments about people who can't respond. It's no wonder so many people in baseball hated him after this. He seemed to think he was "telling it like it was" but to dump on teamates who can't respond is pretty low. With friends like Bouton you don't need enemies. I think he could have been just as funny without going out of his way to try to hurt people.
Rating: 
Summary: Best sports book I have read...
Review: Wit, humor, insight. These are probably the three most useful words when writing about Jim Bouton's great book on life inside and outside the lines. Bouton takes the reader on a season long trip during which the we get to experience the frustrations and joys of being a baseball player. I was truly disappointed that this book had to end. Bouton's honesty, humor and ability to connect with the layman make this one of the best books I have ever read (and I read alot).
Rating: 
Summary: Ball Four far from a Balk
Review: I am a 23 year old sports administration student with a journalism degree. I picked this book up only three days ago and since then have used every spare minute reading from its pages. It is a nice blend of team comradery and look into a man who wanted no more than to play ball! I have travelled with teams and over heard the conversations they have, and witnessed the hijinxs. There is no difference from todays players to that "great" Pilots team. I love the game of baseball, and all its tradition, even being a Canadian kid with Hockey embeded into my upbringing.I have already started to let others in on the book and they are anxious to read it as well.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Baseball Book Ever Written
Review: As far as I'm concerned, Ball Four is easily the best baseball book out there. I've read about 45 baseball books and nothing compares to Bouton's masterpiece. I've read this book four times and it still hasn't gotten old yet. I'm sure I'll read it at least ten more times and I doubt that I will ever get tired of it. What makes Ball Four better than any other baseball book is that it allows its readers to see the game from a player's perspective. Never has a book given such an up-close, in-the-locker-room look at baseball. Of course, Bouton himself is brilliant. I love his sarcasm and his biting wit. Ball Four might have been a pretty good book even if it had been written by a poor writer; Bouton, though, is an excellent storyteller and his attitude is what shapes the book. If you consider yourself a fan of the game, you will buy Ball Four immediately. It has given me great joy time and time again.
Rating:
Summary: Bouton's memoirs read like a hilarious novel.
Review: He writes honestly about what it is like to be the outsider. Which is why this book created such an uproar in 1970. Marginal relief pitchers can not give the public the low down on Mickey Mantle, or give the bird to Commissioner Kuhn. Baseball needs someone today to give us the real story. I still come back to this book after 10 years. It is refreshing in its innocence. Would Sammy Sosa pop a greenie? Do the Montreal Expos go "beaver shooting" while in Toronto? Certainly there must be a manager today who tells his team to "Pound back the ol'Budweiser like Joe Schultz. Say that its so. This book will be read by baseball fans in 2075--as much as Fred Talbot must hate to hear it.
Rating:
Summary: It's evolved into almost a history book
Review: The amazing thing about reading Ball Four now, almost 30 years after it was first published, is how the game of baseball has changed. Bouton's book is almost a time capsule, illustrating what it was like when players didn't control the game and political correctness wasn't even a term. We need another Jim Bouton to describe life in baseball today. Do the Yankees still shoot beaver? Do players even worry anymore about getting back $600 apartment deposits if they're traded? Have greenies given way to andro? Even if a new Bouton surfaced, he couldn't be any funnier than the original. The image that never fails to crack me up is the one of Joe Pepitone giving a guy a hotfoot while being the victim of a hotfoot himself. Has Ken Griffey Jr. ever given anyone a hot foot? Does he even know what it is?
Rating: 
Summary: The Cutting Edge Now Blunted
Review: Perhaps Jim Bouton himself says it best: "The books that have come after mine make BALL FOUR, as an expose, read like THE BOBBSEY TWINS GO TO THE SEASHORE." This is because--dare I say it?--BALL FOUR is now pretty tame stuff. Oh, no doubt, it's entertaining...and Bouton IS a good writer (or Schecter a great editor). And let's never forget that WITHOUT it, we should never have had the pleasure of Dennis Rodman's name on a bestseller. But the book is hardly shocking anymore, and I doubt the high school toughs of today have even heard of it, much less decided to read it (now, if MICHAEL JORDAN decided to write a tell-all....) However, the diminished shock value makes BALL FOUR'S merits stand out more clearly than perhaps they could when it was new. Though I wasn't shocked by it, I often found myself laughing; Bouton has a way of sketching characters and dialogue quite entertainingly. Too, being a bit of an outsider myself, I could certainly relate to his one-rational-voice-crying-out-in-the-wilderness persona. And the 1990 edition of the book has value in that Bouton is able to look back and see the results of the changes in baseball he and others worked toward. So, perhaps, the reader's enjoyment of BALL FOUR is in the approach. Don't expect to be shocked or enraged; that time is past. Rather, expect four or five days of solid chuckles and a good feeling when you finish.
Rating:
Summary: This the greatest baseball book in the history of the game.
Review: This book is, quite simply, teriffic. It is one of the funniest works ever written, and I throughly enjoy every time I read it. Kudos to Jim Bouton.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for baseball fans and anyone else
Review: Even if you are not a baseball fan you can appreciate this wonderful book. Although it is centerd around the game of baseball, this is essentially a tale about young men in general. I found it hilarious and i reccomend it to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: It was Elston Howard
| 
