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I did enjoy that book.
“Ball Four” was quite a sensation. In it, Bouton described how baseball players (specifically the Mickey Mantle-era NY Yankees) really act. It was pretty scandalous...and a page-turner.
Seems like he was a decent pitcher too.
The man was dangerous. He did tell the truth. But in so doing he ratted out his teammates and people who trusted him. He was never trusted again.
I read the book , but I was too young to get it. My brother had the book and I think we were just looking for the dirty words that were in print (which was another “cutting edge” aspect to the book).
He also had 2 follow up books that were pretty good -
“I’m glad you didn’t take it personally”
and
“I managed good but boy did they play bad”
“who wrote the most famous tell-all book in baseball history”
Jose Canseco might have something to say about that.
I was in high school when I read Ball Four and there were a couple of things I distinctly remember. First was the part where he talked about the coaches who looked younger by a decade or more because they maintained good suntans. The other was the subcompact beat up car they drove during spring training in Florida. It was a real junker and I think they only put gas in it. No oil or maintenance of any sort. After the last spring training it was abandoned on some street in town. After coming back to the town a couple years later it was discovered parked in the same place. And it still ran!
I lived in Seattle in ‘69. We made it! We are in the ‘Big Time’, (Not called the ‘in the show’ jazz in ‘69), ‘Go-Go you Pilots’ was the catch call for the team! Light, (VERY), hitting SS, Ray Oyler, was elevated to local cult status by one of Seattle’s popular radio personalities, Bob Hardwick, efforts and the entire promotion was made a lot of fun because of Oyler’s participation in the entire thing. When the Pilot’s move to Milwaukee was locally announced here in seattle, it was on April Fools Day 1970, and of course everybody thought it was a joke. The joke was on us though. I bought Ball Four as soon as it was available and have read it to many times to count since. What a Summer! R.I.P. Jim Bulldog Bouton.
RIP.