Aww, sh*tf*ck: Jim Bouton struggles with brain disease

[Riptide]

The ol' Bulldog has had two strokes in recent years, and they are taking their toll ...

Bouton’s body was largely unaffected by the [2012] stroke. But his mind, the one whose pointed and poignant observations produced the classic memoir “Ball Four” in 1970, will never be the same. This weekend in New York, at the convention for the Society of American Baseball Research, Bouton went public about his brain disease: cerebral amyloid angiopathy, which is linked to dementia.

Jim Bouton, Author and Former Pitcher, Struggles With Brain Disease

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Ah, ********.

Hope things work out well for him.

 

[jr/shotglass]

I wish I could give him some Budweisers to pound. Damn.

 

[hondo]

He's one of the reasons I wanted to be a sportswriter. I wanted to write about guys like him.
Ball Four also has to be the most influential sports book ever.

 

[Riptide]

He's one of the reasons I wanted to be a sportswriter. I wanted to write about guys like him.
Ball Four also has to be the most influential sports book ever.

I've read it, but only 20 times.

 

[Vombatus]

Ball Four contributed to my divorce.

I was reading the book, and I distinctly recall taking long hot baths while reading the book and my wife was getting fed up on how long I was spending in the tub instead of getting out and doing her.

Separated within a month.

********. Bouton ****ed up my marriage.

True story.

 

[FileNotFound]

"Ball Four" is on my Kindle. I read some portion of it on every flight I take. It just never gets old.

 

[NNDman]

Ball Four is a great sports read and I've read it about a dozen times and have the original paperback and an update one which I believe might be ball four plus one.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I'm on my third copy.

The first time I read it, I was in junior high. For study hall, we weren't allowed to talk (until high school), so we either could study (duh) or read a book. I brought "Ball Four" in to read for some study halls, and always felt like I was putting one over on the teachers because it
had curse words and mentioned sex quite frequently.

One time, a monitor came over and asked what I was reading. I told her it was a book on baseball. She glanced at the cover, then said, "oh," and moved along.

My all-time favorite book.

 

[justgladtobehere]

The baseball flake can become a bore (I'm looking at you, Bill Lee), but Bouton was a good one. We need more like them, not like the imbalanced Lenny Dykstra or the Reds outfielder who claimed he heard voices in his head.

 

[UNCGrad]

I remember being in a terrible college English class that fulfilled something or other on the elective scale, and the insufferable TA went around the class asking about our favorite American authors and why they mean something to us. When he got to me, I said, "Jim Bouton." This was around 1994-95, so of course, crickets and awkward silence. But it was absolutely an honest answer. "Ball Four" is my favorite all-time book, and I've probably read it 20-plus times as well.

 

[Big Circus]

The baseball flake can become a bore (I'm looking at you, Bill Lee), but Bouton was a good one. We need more like them, not like the imbalanced Lenny Dykstra or the Reds outfielder who claimed he heard voices in his head.

The Reds outfielder who had CTE and killed himself? **** him, right?

Report: CTE present when Freel killed self

 

[jr/shotglass]

Ball Four not only was a great book, it led me to discover Jim Brosnan's "tell-alls" from the early '60s. Perhaps a degree tamer, but way, way before its time.

By the way, my parents had to sign a waiver at the community library for me to be able to check out Ball Four as a 13-year-old.

 

[cyclingwriter2]

Wow . Just picked up the paperback at a small used book store last Thursday night to replace my previous paperback my daughter destroyed when she was a toddler. Have been reading it since. Great book.

 

[qtlaw]

Disappointed to hear this as well. Read it in college back in the early 80's and was fascinated in the "tell-all" look into a team. IIRC, its where I read the best baseball line ever, by Joe Pepitone, "hey someone has to f*** the fat chicks."

 

[cjericho]

Great book and a real nice guy.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Disappointed to hear this as well. Read it in college back in the early 80's and was fascinated in the "tell-all" look into a team. IIRC, its where I read the best baseball line ever, by Joe Pepitone, "hey someone has to f*** the fat chicks."

I don't remember that one from the book. Was it from another book?

I do,remember in Ball Four, Bouton told the stories of how he had put talcum powder in Pepitone's hair dryer and how Pepitone had put a piece of popcorn in his forceps and claimed a new veneral disease.

 

[Riptide]

I don't remember that one from the book. Was it from another book?

I do,remember in Ball Four, Bouton told the stories of how he had put talcum powder in Pepitone's hair dryer and how Pepitone had put a piece of popcorn in his forceps and claimed a new veneral disease.

Foreskin.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Foreskin.

Yeah, I was thinking of the part where the trainer removed the popcorn with the forceps.

 

[hondo]

"Ass Eyes" has to be a top-10 baseball nickname.