I proudly still have my autographed Ball Four book. The funny thing is that he got the notoriety but there was a book written about 10 years earlier that was similar but forgotten. The reason Ball Four was so notorious in it’s day was that it revealed that Mickey Mantle was not the saint everyone thought during his playing days.
I lived in da Bronex as a kid, moved just across the GWB when I was 9 and have always been a big fan of the NYY.
I seem to recall the Cops Cabana incident where Mantle, Billy Martin, Hank Bauer and I think Whitey Ford mixed it up with a few antagonizers (no doubt Brooklyn Dodger fans). It took place in the early-mid 50s and long before Boutens book and was in the papers. Back in the day the sports headlines/stories were on the back page of the NY DAILY NEWS and the DAILY MIRROR.