Ball Four

The Final Pitch

By: Jim Bouton

Narrated by: Jim Bouton

Length: 18 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Ball Four: The Final Pitch is the original book plus all the updates, unlike the 20th Anniversary Edition paperback.

When Ball Four was published in 1970, it created a firestorm. Bouton was called a Judas, a Benedict Arnold and a “social leper” for having violated the “sanctity of the clubhouse.” Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying the book wasn’t true. Ballplayers, most of whom hadn’t read it, denounced the book. It was even banned by a few libraries.

Almost everyone else, however, loved Ball Four. Fans liked discovering that athletes were real people--often wildly funny people. Many readers said it gave them strength to get through a difficult period in their lives. Serious critics called it an important document.

David Halberstam, who won a Pulitzer for his reporting on Vietnam, wrote a piece in Harper’s that said of Bouton: “He has written… a book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact that it is by no means a sports book.”

In 1999 Ball Four was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the “Books of the Century.” And Time magazine chose it as one of the "100 Greatest Non-Fiction" books.

Besides changing the image of athletes, the book played a role in the economic revolution in pro sports. In 1975, Ball Four was accepted as legal evidence against the owners at the arbitration hearing, which lead to free agency in baseball and, by extension, to other sports.

Today Ball Four has taken on another role--as a time capsule of life in the 60s. "It is not just a diary of Bouton's 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros," says sportswriter Jim Caple. "It's a vibrant, funny, telling history of an era that seems even further away than four decades. To call it simply a "tell all book" is like describing The Grapes of Wrath as a book about harvesting peaches in California."

©1970, 1981, 1990 Jim Bouton (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact it is by no means a sports book." (David Halberstam)

" Ball Four is a people book, not just a baseball book." ( The New York Times)

" Ball Four is out in a new e-book edition, available on Kindle. It also is available as an audio book, read by Bouton himself, through audible.com. The only thing better than reading Ball Four again might be listening to Bouton read it to you." (R. A. Dickey, columnist and senior writer for ESPN.com.)

Remarkably heart felt

I first read this book when it came out back in the 70s. It was considered scandalous at the time but I thought it made the baseball players more human.

This version is so interesting. Nowadays, the contact of the book is pretty tame. What makes this book so much better is listen to the narrators voice as he laughs about his own stories, and as he cries about the death of his daughter.

This is one of the best offerings by Audible. It was worth the price. It’s a shame that the author is no longer around because he seems like a very nice person to know.

Great Listen

I read the original many years ago so I wasn’t sure it would be worth a listen. However, Jim Bouton’s reading adds a flavor one couldn’t get from reading. I highly recommend as the messages remain current and the story fun.

Simply The Best

This goes into my personal Hall of Fame. I had read the book as a teenager with my brother and we chuckled together over it. So when Jim Fountain died recently I decided to give this a try again.

I was amazed at what I remembered and what I didn’t. I also recommended this to my son and he said this was easily his best audible book he had ever listen to.

What really set this a part wasThe author reading the book. All of his emotions came out as he remember his masterpiece.

The other thing that struck me was that

A brilliant time capsule.

What a ride. Having avoided this book for thirty years, because I didn't like the Yankees. yeah...well as I've gotten older I have learned to have an appreciation for players who were great. I decided to pick this book up and listen to it due to Jim being the reader as well as the author. I love that the emphasis on certain sentences really comes alive when the actual writer does the narration...and I was missing baseball. Man, this book was a fantastic time capsule. I was blown away by the change in Jim as a thirty year old boy man to a man in his 60's looking back and into the future. You will have feels in listening to this book especially in the later years. It is powerful and I'm bummed it took me this long to listen to this book, but equally happy I finally did. Do yourself a favor if you like biographies and listen to this one. I don't have too many famous people I would have loved to meet for a moment in time, I believe I would have liked to meet Jim. He seems like a guy that I would have enjoyed talking to for a while.

This is the best audiobook I have ever heard.

I felt like Jim was inviting me into his life, to live his struggles and triumphs with him. I laughed when he did, and I cried with him when he experienced tragedy.

This is so much more than just a diary of one season in his baseball life. It is beautiful.

And Jim, Laurie would have been proud, I think, to hear you speak about her this way. Anyone would.

All-time great book.

Love it, he told the hard cold truth about what actually happens in a locker room and showed how hard it was to negotiate a decent contract in the days before free agency.

For baseball fans of all ages!

For Baseball fans of all ages well done, well narrated and just plain fun ! Yea!

A great story!

Read “Ball Four” when it first came out and now have heard it again and all the updates. With Jim Bouton reading his own book it truly adds to the pleasure and charm of the book!

Classic and meaningful

I’d always heard that Bouton’s Ball Four was the stuff of legend and it sure was - truly enjoyed the stories of baseball shenanigans and characters from yesteryear. The section on his daughter was heartbreaking. Overall, I enjoyed his narration as very authentic coming from the author himself but I really wish there had been some edits done with lots of distracting swallows and breathing that made it a choppy audiobook. Maybe I’m too picky as a narrator myself. Overall, well done.

Great Story

He gets a little preachy and "back in my day" at the end, but always a classic read.