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35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
A Groundbreaking, Entertaining, and Funny Book, May 9, 2002
"Ball Four" is a diary that covers the year of a baseball player, in this case Jim Bouton, who spent the 1969 season with the expansion Seattle Pilots and then the Houston Astros. Entertaining on many levels, "Ball Four" also serves as a mirror of the times -- in the late 1960s, many established concepts and ideas, in politics, music, mass media, and sports, were being shattered. Baseball, always about five years behind the curve, was always thought of as a game that was played by wholesome, All-American men. They were our heroes. Ball Four, however, sheds new light and revealed, for the first time, that baseball players, even some of the game's superstars, are human.
Bouton tells all, in, by today's standards, a tame fashion. We read about everything -- ballplayers cheating on their wives, playing with hangovers, racial problems between teammates, players taking uppers before a game, etc. Bouton is a very insightful writer and presents the material in a humorous manner, the humor, or barbs, is directed at his teammates, managers, coaches, and, in many instances, at himself.
Baseball was outraged when the book first came out in 1970. Many players and baseball executives considered Bouton a turncoat. But the years have shown that Ball Four was a groundbreaking book, one that set the standard for tell-all books to come. These other books, however, have never reached the level of excellence of Bouton's "Ball Four."
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25 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
A revealing book -- but not always as the author intends, December 31, 2005
Ball Four is a good and important book to own. If one mark of a good book is its ability to provoke reactions, and often contradictory reactions, then Ball Four is a fine book.
What really makes the book a worthwhile read is the way that it reflects a time of momentous change in baseball. I'm not sure if younger fans can truly appreciate how rapidly things were changing in baseball back then. America experienced a broader social revolution throughout 1967 and 1968, but it really took until 1969 for it to work fully its way into baseball. If you look at the baseball cards from 1967 and 1968, they're bland grey items whereupon the players all look like crew-cutted astronauts. Come 1970, 1971, and beyond, everything is different: sideburns, Afros, wild psychadelic colors. Ball Four came out at the leading edge of these changes, and it captured festering tensions between baseball's old guard and a skeptical generation of young players.
Ball Four is widely hailed as a great classic. It's not quite as pathbreaking as its reputation, however. For one thing, it had a predecessor earlier in the decade, The Long Season, by Jim Brosnan, another "kiss and tell" book written by an active player. Brosnan's previous book is better written and more insightful. Ball Four created more of a sensation, but mostly because it was slummier -- it revels a bit more in the drinking and carousing than does the previous book. Because of this, Ball Four upset the baseball establishment a bit more, and it titillated young readers a bit more. Other aspects of the book were equally shocking (back then, anyway): for example, the portrayal of many authority figures -- coaches, managers, and baseball executives -- as dunderheads. This was an anti-establishment book in many respects.
Baseball was changing on all fronts, and these changes are well reflected in this book. Bouton pitches for the Seattle Pilots, in their first and last year of their existence, and the first season of the newly created league divisions. You also read of the attempts of baseball players to create a union, and the divisions among players this caused. You've also got the new turf parks, such as the Houston Astrodome where Bouton finishes up his season. And there are all of the social changes: the sexual revolution, the hashing out of racial issues, and perhaps first and foremost, the generation gap.
Bouton captures all this and more. Having said all that, my enjoyment of this book is limited by the fact that Bouton's own perspective is often arrogant and intolerant, in much the same way that he derides the older coaches and managers as being. You get the clear sense while reading him that the 1960s generational wars were caused not only by an older generation stuck in its ways, but equally by a younger generation that assumed it was automatically right and that they had nothing to learn from anybody. For example, Bouton persistently quotes his managers and coaches only to show how stupid they are. Now, there is such a thing as stupidity among the old, but all rebellious kids usually think that the older generation has missed a beat. Sometimes they're right, and sometimes not. Bouton's always convinced he's right, but there's little reason to believe he always is.
A typical battle between Bouton and his pitching coach Sal Maglie concerns Bouton's attempt to survive on the knuckleball. Sal Maglie gets on his case about it, and discourages him from throwing the knuckler exclusively. Bouton is convinced that his other stuff is basically gone, and the only way he's going to hang on is if he relies on the knuckler, and he wants to be left alone to concentrate on that pitch.
Let's just examine this from both sides for a moment to get a sense of whether Bouton's contempt for Maglie is justified.
When Bouton came up, he was a very successful pitcher with the New York Yankees. But although he had a reputation for having a young, live arm, the stats show that he was never really an overpowering pitcher. In 1964, he struck out only 120 men in 271 innings, while winning 18 games. Historically, pitchers don't get by on finesse like that for very long. It's not at all surprising that a few years later, Bouton no longer had hard enough stuff to get major league hitters out. Bouton's self-assessment in Ball Four seems to be justified: he probably doesn't have a good enough fastball or slider by 1969 to make it as a major league pitcher, and unless he gets the knuckler to work, that's it for him.
Now let's look on the other side. If there were ever a guy who knew something about such a situation, it was Sal Maglie. Maglie's emergence as a good major league pitcher was delayed by his "outlaw" years in the Mexican league. Like Bouton, Maglie wasn't overpowering -- in his finest year he struck out only 146 in 298 innings. But unlike Bouton, Maglie was very successful in his 30s. When Maglie tells Bouton that a key ingredient for success of an older pitcher is not walking too many hitters, he's onto something. Bouton gave up 12 gopher balls in only 92 innings with Seattle in 1969, and if you're that vulnerable to the gopher, you've got to keep the walks down. Most importantly, Maglie had accomplished what Bouton was trying to do -- not with overpowering physical gifts, but by assessing his own situation accurately; there was something to learn there.
The point is not that Bouton is right or Maglie is right, but that there are two good perspectives here, and if Bouton weren't so full of himself, he might be able to pick up what good things Maglie had to offer him, combining them with his own valid insights. Instead, Bouton spends the whole book making fun of Maglie and anyone else in a position of authority, refusing to learn anything from anyone older.
Bouton is a hero to everyone who has ever been fed up with their teachers, their boss, or "the establishment" at large, because many readers find it cathartic to read someone's rantings against stodgy authority figures. But in the final analysis, Bouton isn't necessarily all that brighter or more insightful than those he critiques: he's just as closed-minded, he just has a different opinion. He's not Galileo; he's not even Bill James. He's just a guy speaking his mind, always candidly, often rudely, and only sometimes with a valid point.
Ball Four is a worthy read because there's no other book quite like it; Bouton is always brutally honest about his feelings, and he conveys the full flavor of a turbulent era in baseball history. The book was considered sensational at the time, but it's not such a prurient interest anymore: now it's useful mostly to convey what all the fussing and fighting was about back then. But in the end it's a fallible set of perspectives by a very fallible individual.
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
The Greatest Baseball Book Ever Written, August 17, 1999
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.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Ball Four: Required Reading for Ball Fans, May 28, 2005
Bouton's diary-style take on professional baseball in the late 1960s makes for a very funny book that ought to be required reading for any sports fan.
Bouton spent a large part of his career pitching his knuckleball for a variety of big-league teams, including for the Yankees in the 1964 World Series. In Ball Four, Bouton goes from the minors to the Seattle Pilots, then to Houston, over the course of the 1969 season. The book really captures a bygone era of baseball. Salaries were low, bus rides were long, and a lot of big names were still in the game.
The book has a reputation for being funny, and it is. Bouton has a wry sense of humor and a keen eye for human foibles.
A few subjects felt burned, but in this day of athletes accused of drug abuse and criminal behavior, some of the antics that Bouton writes about seem very tame, almost quaint. It's a little hard to see what the fuss was about if you're planted firmly in 2005.
Bouton's observations are fascinating, capturing an era in baseball (and more broadly, in our nation) that has all but disappeared. These were the days before million-dollar contracts and when the length of their hair and sideburns sometimes held the key to a player's future.
Bouton brings the moments alive, so the reader can feel the nerves of a pitcher blowing a game, the joy of running across a big-league field, the frustration of trying to get Gatorade, the speechlessness of finding one's shoes nailed to the clubhouse floor.
Readers should be grateful that someone with a clear, ironic eye had the foresight to take notes and write this book. As Bouton himself says, so many of the funny details would have been lost forever.
For baseball fans, young and old, put this at the top of your summer reading list.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
Six Stars !!, October 28, 2000
Jim Bouton's "Ball Four" is, without a doubt, the best book ever written by a professional athlete and is arguably the greatest baseball book of all-time. Dozens of kiss-n-tell sports novels have dotted the bestseller lists since "Ball Four's" publication in 1970, but none are as funny or revealing as Bouton's expose. All however, owe their very existence to "Ball Four" which shook the moral foundation of our national pastime upon its release. Bouton forever stripped away the All-American image of the professional sports hero with his humorous -- and sometimes X-rated -- locker room tales. Many, including then Commisioner Bowie Kuhn, felt that Bouton had forever tarnished baseball's image with his less than flattering portrayals of some of the game's biggest stars.(Namely Bouton's former Yankee teammate Mickey Mantle). Jim Bouton, in 1970, was Public Enemy #1 in the eyes of the baseball establishment. Truth be told, Bouton merely humanized the professional athlete. Many players--especially Bouton himself --are portrayed as being uncertain of their abilities and fearful of losing their jobs in the highly competitive world of major league baseball.(Such insecurity is best exemplified when Bouton is traded in mid-season from Seattle to Houston and lives to tell us about it!) Overall, "Ball Four" is one heckuva book. Bouton's sense of humor is absolutely side-splitting and his sensitivity, at times, is downright moving. This is a fantastic, groundbreaking novel which no sports fan should be without. Six Stars!!
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
The Alltime Expose of Big-League Ball, August 2, 2005
In 1970, baseball was hit with two ground-breaking events that shook it from its complacent stance left over from the days of FDR. First, Curt Flood began his challenge to the time-honored reserve clause when he tried to block his trade to Philadelphia. And second, the publication of a relief pitcher's season diary with the Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros, a book that challenged the image of ballplayers forever.
That book was "Ball Four", and it was the view of a memorable 1969 season for Jim Bouton, the author and a former star pitcher with the Yankees. Now down on his luck and struggling to remain on a major-league roster, Bouton decided to document his trek from the dungeons of the minor leagues to the full-fledged ecstasy of pitching a major league game successfully.
It's the stories along the way, however, that made baseball squirm...
Seen through the light of post-Watergate "destroying the heroes" (and through the troubling trend of post-9/11 to build them back up), "Ball Four" seems on some levels like "been there, done that". But seen through the context of the time it came out, it shook the foundations of the game and caused a major scandel for Bouton and kept him from being invited to Old Timers' Day in New York.
Bouton was a former phenom whose fastball secured him a spot on the Yankees roster in the early Sixties, but by the time of the 1969 season he was struggling to find a new pitch to accomadate the sore arm that he acquired in place of that fastball. Here documented is his struggle with mastering the knuckleball, easily the most difficult pitch to control. Also, Bouton has money problems that his bosses aren't eager to resolve. Before Curt Flood's post-season trade disputes began, Bouton is seen fighting tooth-and-nail for a measly $1000 at a time, and his trade from Seattle could very well have had something to do with that (or his insistance on investing in a new product on the market, something called "Gatorade" which was supposedly better than soda for ballplayers).
Bouton also discusses the times he's living in, and how baseball chooses to ignore them. Race relations, the civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam, and all the issues that defined the Sixties never seemed to touch baseball, but Bouton gets under the skin of his teammates and his coachs by embracing some of the youth culture around him. Some of the funniest passages describe his reactions to the constant stream of country-and-western music at the back of the team bus, where he tries to "fit in" with the guys.
Bouton is remarkably honest for a ballplayer, spicing his diary with revealing passages about himself, his past, and the pasts of those around him. That's what brought him before the auspices of comissioner Bowie Kuhn to "deny" what he wrote as being true. His discussions about Mickey Mantle (whose alcoholism eventually killed him) was seen as a Benedict Arnold-esque turn in 1970, but now we all know Bouton was telling the truth.
Bouton's struggles with control both on the field and against his bosses make "Ball Four" a revelation, as it shows old-time baseball as the antiquated institution it is. He also revels in the fact that he's not a typical jock, and many of the teammates around him who may have been angered by tales about their own faults actually emerge as more sympathetic figures than they would have in the typical hagiograpchic sports screeds. Here they're real human beings, not the God-like figures of yore.
Jim Bouton went from being a good pitcher with arm problems to a truth-telling Judas who wrote himself out of the game. But when the book you pen is "Ball Four", it might very well be worth it. Bouton will be remembered for his masterpiece of sports literature far longer than the critics who took him to task for that. You couldn't ask for a better won-loss record.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Not Just for Baseball Annies, October 26, 2000
I first read this book when I was about fifteen or so - way back in the 70's. That tattered paperback copy is one of the few books from my teenage years that I still own, having hauled it and a few other beloved reads in moves from Pennsylvania to Arizona to Colorado. I loved the book then and reread it every couple of years. Bouton's sense of humor pervades the book, and still keeps me laughing. Aside from a fascinating insight into the sport of baseball, it was also a terrific insight into the male mind. The day -to -day accounts of the activities of the exclusively male environment of a sports team was quite engrossing to a girl living with a single mother and two sisters. (Someday, somehow, I am going to play that baby powder/hair dryer prank on someone!) The book also offers a look into America's past that even in the mid-70's was no more. I can recall my shock and disbelief at Bouton's description of the restaurants in the South that would not serve the black ball players inside - forcing those players to take their food outside to eat on the team bus. Nothing like that existed in my Pennsylvania town; it was hard for me to believe such things occurred in my own lifetime. (And to this day, I am indignant that the ball clubs would patronize such restaurants, and the fellow players would accept this situation.) I heard of the book from Mad Magazine, and read it in order to understand the joke in the magazine --something about you know you are Republican if you think Jim Bouton is a traitor -- (and yes, I was the kind of kid who would read a book in order to udnerstand a joke!). I had not been a baseball fan before reading Ball Four, but I've been a fan ever since. (And a lifelong democrat <g>)
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Iconoclast on the Pitching Mound, October 24, 2003
I read this book when it first came out. It was quite an eye-opener although it may seem tame by today's standards. There was, we were told, an unwritten (and in some cases WRITTEN) rule that what happens in the club house stays in the club house. Jim Bouton certainly trashed that maxim as well as a lot of other sacred icons in "Ball Four". In the process he became more famous for his writing than he ever was for his pitching. This book is actually a diary of a pitcher's season. Bouton was a flame-throwing pitcher for the Yankees but he blew out his arm when he was still relatively young. He attempted to come back as a knuckle ball pitcher with the Seattle Pilots (remember them?). Pitching on an expansion team in its' first year gave Bouton an interesting perspective. Afterall, his previous service in the majors involved pitching in the World Series for the almighty Yankees. He went from a great team to a lousy team; from being a very good pitcher to a slightly below mediocre pitcher. With this background, the author shares what it was like to be at the top and what it is like to be at the bottom. We go day to day through the season. Bouton critiques his various pitching performances as well as the rest of the expansion team. Much of the book is hilarious, especially the parts about his manager, Joe Schultz. It is, however, Bouton's comments about his former Yankee teammates that have ruffled so many feathers. For example, he ponders how many more home runs Mickey Mantle would have gotten if he hadn't come to so many games hungover. Well, so much for Bouton being invited to Old-timer's games at Yankee Sta | |
