Belated Happy Birthday, Jim Bouton

I read the sequel 15, 16 years ago. I should probably read it again, but my memory of it was that it was an OK book, but not as good as Ball Four. And Bouton ended up getting stressed out from all the fuss over the first book and pitched poorly.

 

Me too.

 

I should have noted that I met him in Calgary after a pitching exhibition against the local AAA Cannons in 1978 and he autographed both books. On the inside cover of "Ball Four" he wrote "Smoke 'em inside, Craig"....a treasured momento I can assure you.

We talked for about 5 minutes until interrupted by a local sports anchor and he seems like a genuinely nice man. He said that he had lived a storybook life and wouldn't change a thing. He shook my hand and it was a real firm grip with a couple of pumps and he hung on a while almost like he was pleased to meet ME!!

I've read BF over 100 times, I'm sure.

 

I own both books. "Ball Four" is still my favorite. The other one was kind of a letdown because "Ball Four" was so good. I guess my expectations were inflated.
"Ball Four" certainly helped me understand what was really going on when I became a baseball beat writer.
Can you even imagine what kind of book Steve Yeager could write?

 

The Giants were outraged after he beat them, calling him a joke. I think Madlock was one of the leaders of that (no surprise there). Bouton said that he changed the game: Instead of looking at the scoreboard to see who won, you instead judged it based on the losing team's evaluation of the pitcher.

Don't know how available it is these days, but grab "Home Games" by Bobbie Bouton and Nancy Marshall if you're a "Ball Four" fan. The book is by the exes of Bouton and Mike Marshall and fills in some of the blanks.

BTW, I also had had a positive interview experience with Bouton. On the other hand, Marshall was an arrogant ass on more than one occasion.

I was all primed to do the wackiest feature ever on Doug Rader because of "Ball Four." I quickly discovered that Rader was angling for a future in coaching and managing and was working hard to bury all of the old stories. So he wouldn't discuss any of that. I'd collected a lot of stuff from Norm Miller, which prompted Rader to go off on him, saying, "He wants to be associated with crazy shit, but he doesn't have the balls to do any of it himself." Disappointing.

 

I read it a few years ago, and it was OK -- some definite humor in there. Including some bit about Bouton (in the NY Times best seller list) having "The Sensuous Woman" on top of him.

But yeah, from what I recall, the hoopla and pressure from having "Ball Four" out helped Bouton have a really lousy 1970 season.

 

I've read all of Bouton's books, multiple times, and loved the stories. Loved his own story, too. But, in retrospect, he never mentioned that he was "the horniest [bleep] in baseball," according to Joe Pepitone after "Ball Four" rocked the boat. Bulldog apparently screwed around on the road as much as anyone.

And Bouton's mission to reclaim his personal glory at any and every stop came before everything in his life for years and years, which must have taken a big toll on his family before and after the divorce. Bouton was so obsessed for so long, and that strikes me as very selfish.

Despite what I say here, I'm a huge Bouton fan. I just wonder if it was worth it.
Sometimes it's hard to give up the ghost, and especially after early stardom.

 

Literature costs. Bouton gave us about the best book on baseball ever. If it cost him personally, so what? The world's better off with Ball Four than without it.

 

Bouton was one of the promoters of Big League Chew, and usually has had some enterprise or another going.

 

Never read "seriously" because I heard it was a let down. Though, I have an original version of Ball Four softcover and the 20th anniversary update, which tells the stories of what happened to the team. Gary Bell was running a place that served Italian and Chinese food, Hovley was a janitor at his kid's school, Womack was a frequent poster on a sports journalism site.