treehwa.blogg.se

Yet, what also comes across is how against the grain his shtick was in big league baseball.

It was the 60s, after all, when he wrote his book, and Bouton exhibits a lot of the anti-Establishment fervor of that era. Indeed, as he’s portrayed in his own writing, Bouton comes across as someone who is intellectually curious, has a funny take on life, sees the world through the prism of his own needs and desires and often makes himself more than a bit of a pain in the ass, especially to authority figures but also to teammates (such as the catchers he constantly nagged to catch his knuckleball before games and in the bullpen during games).

Yet, in 1977, he launched a comeback, and, after a year and a half in the minors, was back with the Atlanta Braves, going 1-3 with a 4.97 ERA.īouton’s nickname in baseball was Bulldog, and “Ball Four” and the epilogues show why he got the moniker. And particularly about such things as beaver-shooting (trying to look up the skirts or into the hotel windows of attractive women), amphetamine-taking (popping greenies) and frequent crudeness.Ī few months after “Ball Four” was published in June, 1970, Bouton was sent to the minors by the Astros.

Most of them didn’t know he was going to write about the season and about them - certainly, in the brash, unvarished way he did. He acts surprised that a good number of his teammates were less than pleased with the book, but I’m not sure what he expected. It is also fun because Bouton tells what had happened to him, particularly how the book turned him into a pariah, denigrated by baseball authorities and many of the players. Only four of the 70 or more players who were on the Seattle and Houston rosters during the 1969 season were still playing in 1981. The 1981 epilogue is fun because Bouton reports on what happened to his teammates on the Seattle Pilots and the Houston Astros - many of whom were distinctive characters in “Ball Four” - since the book’s publication. This version, published by Bouton himself in 2000, includes the original book, edited by Leonard Shecter, plus epilogues from 1981 (the “Ball Five” chapter), 1990 (“Ball Six”) and 2000 (“Ball Seven”). And still potent enough to make a baseball fan squirm. More than 40 years after it was first published, Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four,” his diary of his 1969 season with two major league teams, remains eminently readable and entertaining.