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Ball Four
- The Final Pitch
- Narrated by: Jim Bouton
- Length: 18 hrs and 39 mins
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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."
Critic reviews
Featured Article: The Best Baseball Audiobooks of All Time
Ask any baseball fan and they'll tell you: some of their favorite sounds can only be heard at the ballpark—the smooth, satisfying pop of a catcher’s glove as a pitch hits its mark; the crack of a bat as it tears into a fastball, explosive and hopeful, drawing the crowd to their feet. Our list, a roundup of outstanding baseball audiobooks, offers a glimmer of that same ballpark magic with just a few of the greatest stories from our national pastime.
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Story
The Soul of Baseball is as much the story of Buck O'Neil as it is the story of baseball. Driven by a relentless optimism and his two great passions - for America's pastime and for jazz, America's music - O'Neil played solely for love. In an era when greedy, steroid-enhanced athletes have come to characterize professional ball, Posnanski offers a salve for the damaged spirit: the uplifting life lessons of a truly extraordinary man who never missed an opportunity to enjoy and love life.
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Buck O’Neil fan!!
- By scott on 04-24-20
By: Joe Posnanski
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They Called Me God
- The Best Umpire Who Ever Lived
- By: Doug Harvey, Peter Golenbock
- Narrated by: Robert Brown
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the pageantry of baseball, one select group is virtually unknown in the outside world, derided by fans, faced with split-second choices that spell victory or defeat. These men are up-close observers of the action, privy to inside jokes, blood feuds, benches-clearing brawls, and managers’ expletive-filled tirades. In this wonderful memoir, Hall of Fame umpire Doug Harvey takes us within baseball as you’ve never seen it, with unforgettable inside stories of baseball greats such as Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, and Whitey Herzog.
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The Best? Possibly.
- By Rick on 07-12-14
By: Doug Harvey, and others
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The Fireballer
- A Novel
- By: Mark Stevens
- Narrated by: Shea Taylor
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Frank Ryder is unstoppable on the baseball field—his pitches arrive faster than a batter can swing, giving his opponents no chance. He’s being heralded as a game-changing pitcher. But within the maelstrom of press, adulation, and wild speculation, Frank is a man alone. Haunted by a tragic incident from years past, he yearns to be the best but cannot reconcile the guilt he carries with the man everyone believes him to be.
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Just Wonderful
- By Mars on 01-05-23
By: Mark Stevens
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Pete Rose
- An American Dilemma
- By: Kostya Kennedy
- Narrated by: Ben Bartolone
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Pete Rose played baseball with a singular and headfirst abandon that endeared him to fans and peers, even as it riled others--a figure at once magnetic, beloved and polarizing. Rose has more base hits than anyone in history, yet he is not in the Hall of Fame. Twenty-five years ago he was banished from baseball for gambling, then ruled ineligible for Cooperstown; today, the question "Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?" has evolved into perhaps the most provocative in sports, a layered, slippery and ever-relevant moral conundrum.
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Good book, not so good production.
- By david d. on 05-01-14
By: Kostya Kennedy
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Where Nobody Knows Your Name
- Life In the Minor Leagues of Baseball
- By: John Feinstein
- Narrated by: John Feinstein
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
John Feinstein is one of the most influential sportswriters of the last three decades. In his masterful new audiobook, Where Nobody Knows Your Name, Feinstein delivers a fascinating account of the mysterious proving ground of America’s national pastime, pulling back the veil on the minor leagues of baseball.
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Living on the Cusp of a Dream
- By W Perry Hall on 04-09-14
By: John Feinstein
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The Chicago Cubs
- Story of a Curse
- By: Rich Cohen
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the Chicago Cubs have always been more than a team: they've been the protagonists of a King Arthur epic, in search of the Holy Grail that is winning the World Series. A chronicle of the last few miraculous seasons as experienced through the prism of Cubs history, The Chicago Cubs tracks the famous curse, which was placed on the team in 1945 by the infamous owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, who was ejected from Wrigley Field when he tried to bring his goat into the grandstand for the fifth game of the World Series.
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just listen and it all happens again
- By Z. Kuhn on 10-28-17
By: Rich Cohen
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The Journey Home
- My Life in Pinstripes
- By: Jorge Posada, Gary Brozek
- Narrated by: Lorenzo Irizarry
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For 17 seasons the name Jorge Posada was synonymous with New York Yankees baseball. A fixture behind home plate throughout the Yankees biggest successes, Jorge became the Yankees' star catcher almost immediately upon his arrival, and in the years that followed, his accomplishments, work ethic, and leadership established him as one of the greatest Yankees ever to put on the uniform.
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Jorge who?!!
- By Jacques on 11-30-22
By: Jorge Posada, and others
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When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!
- By: Yogi Berra, Dave Kaplan
- Narrated by: Dale Berra
- Length: 2 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Yogi Berra is one of America's most beloved baseball players of all time, known as much for his wit and humor as he is for his exploits with the New York Yankees. In this new book, Yogi provides inspiring, funny, and surprisingly moving essays on life, happiness, and getting through the slumps.
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Super fun to hang out with Yogi for a few hours
- By K. B. Rollins on 08-21-21
By: Yogi Berra, and others
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Seasons in Hell
- With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and "The Worst Baseball Team in History"-The 1973-1975 Texas Rangers
- By: Mike Shropshire
- Narrated by: Peter Powlus
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Offering wonderful perspectives on dozens of unique (and likely never-to-be-seen-again) baseball personalities, Seasons in Hell recounts some of the most extreme characters ever to play the game and brings to life the no-holds-barred culture of major league baseball in the mid-'70s.
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If you followed MLB in the 70's or 80's !!!!
- By Eric on 03-09-16
By: Mike Shropshire
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Wherever I Wind Up
- My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball
- By: R. A. Dickey, Wayne Coffey
- Narrated by: Ben Hunter
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
> The Glass Castle meets Ball Four as Mets knuckleballer R. A. Dickey weaves searing honesty and baseball insight in this memoir about his unlikely journey to the big leagues. An English Lit major at the University of Tennessee, Dickey is as articulate and thoughtful as any professional athlete in any sport - and proves it page after page, as he provides fresh and honest insight into baseball and a career unlike any other.
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Marred (for me) by unfortunate performance issues
- By Anthony on 03-28-13
By: R. A. Dickey, and others
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The Boys of Summer
- The Classic Narrative of Growing Up Within Shouting Distance of Ebbets Field, Covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and What's Happened to Everybody Since
- By: Roger Kahn
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This is a story about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a story by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for the Herald Tribune. This is the story about what happened to the team when their glory days were behind them.
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Classic book!
- By Christopher Arthur on 11-19-17
By: Roger Kahn
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Dollar Sign on the Muscle
- The World of Baseball Scouting
- By: Kevin Kerrane
- Narrated by: Patrick Kerrane
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Humorous case histories and profiles of great baseball scouts accompany a discussion of the trade secrets of baseball scouts, the economics of scouting, player development, and the history of the profession. In a new epilogue Kevin Kerrane explores the world of baseball scouting in the late 1990s.
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Good for diehards, but dated and riddled w errors
- By Kindle Customer on 03-02-17
By: Kevin Kerrane
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The Big Bam
- The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
- By: Leigh Montville
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Babe Ruth was more than baseball's original superstar. For 85 years, he has remained the sport's reigning titan. He has been named Athlete of the Century...more than once. But who was this large, loud, enigmatic man? In The Big Bam, Leigh Montville brings his trademark touch to this groundbreaking, revelatory portrait of the Babe.
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The Big Bam
- By Alan on 06-13-06
By: Leigh Montville
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The Big Field
- By: Mike Lupica
- Narrated by: Christopher Evan Welch
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Hutch has always played shortstop. His idol Derek Jeter, plays the position, and more importantly, so did his father. But when a better shortstop joins the team, Hutch must move to second base. With his father's shadow looming and the championship on the line, Hutch will need to make the adjustment quickly.
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never a dull moment
- By John Zauner on 05-07-18
By: Mike Lupica
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The Last Boy
- Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood
- By: Jane Leavy
- Narrated by: Jane Leavy, John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Drawing on more than 500 interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.
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The Man Behind the Myth
- By Ray on 11-12-10
By: Jane Leavy
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Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds or been more different in temperament. Jefferson, the optimist with enough faith in the innate goodness of his fellow man to be democracy's champion, was an aristocratic Southern slave owner while Adams, the overachiever from New England's rising middling classes, painfully aware he was no aristocrat, was a skeptic about popular rule and a defender of a more elitist view of government.
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Only for Poker Fans. Not much there if you arent.
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In 40 years, Earth's population will reach 10 billion. Can our world support that? What kind of world will it be? Those answering these questions generally fall into two deeply divided groups - Wizards and Prophets, as Charles Mann calls them in this balanced, authoritative, nonpolemical new book. The Prophets, he explains, follow William Vogt, a founding environmentalist who believed that in using more than our planet has to give, our prosperity will lead us to ruin.
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Fantastic
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Deep in the Arctic wilderness, Peter Freuchen awoke to find himself buried alive under the snow. During a sudden blizzard the night before, he had taken shelter underneath his dogsled and become trapped there while he slept. Now, as feeling drained from his body, he managed to claw a hole through the ice only to find himself in even greater danger: his beard, wet with condensation from his struggling breath, had frozen to his sled runners and lashed his head in place, exposing it to icy winds that needed only a few minutes to kill him. If Freuchen could escape that, he could escape anything.
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Amazingly in-depth look at an amazing person.
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True West
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True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work, and Times is the story of an American icon, a lasting portrait of Sam Shepard as he really was, revealed by those who knew him best. This sweeping biography charts Shepard’s long and complicated journey from a small town in Southern California to become an internationally known playwright and movie star. The only son of an alcoholic father, Shepard crafted a public persona as an authentic American archetype: the loner, the cowboy, the drifter, the stranger in a strange land.
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Wow!
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My Old Kentucky Home
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In My Old Kentucky Home, Emily Bingham explores the long, strange journey of what has come to be seen by some as an American anthem, an integral part of our folklore, culture, customs, foundation, a living symbol of a “happy past.” But “My Old Kentucky Home” was never just a song. It was always a song about slavery with the real Kentucky home inhabited by the enslaved and shot through with violence, despair, and degradation.
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Outstanding in several ways. Highly recommended.
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Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama
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Bob Odenkirk’s career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explicate it for you. Charting a “Homeric” decades-long “odyssey” from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago to a dramatic career full of award nominations - with a side trip into the action-man world that is baffling to all who know him - it’s almost like there are many Bob Odenkirks! But there is just one and one is plenty. Featuring humorous tangents, wild characters, and Bob’s trademark unflinching drive, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is a classic tale told by a determined idiot.
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Not great
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You Only Rock Once
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The long-awaited autobiography of entertainment icon Jerry Blavat, You Only Rock Once is the wildly entertaining and unfiltered story of the man whose career began at the age of 13 on the TV dance show Bandstand and became a music legend. Lifelong friendships with the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra, a controversial relationship with Philadelphia Mafia boss Angelo Bruno that resulted in a decade-long FBI investigation, and much more colors this amazing journey from the early 60s through today.
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Philly's own, Geator...Entertaining autobiography
- By Dawn Rettinger on 01-21-20
By: Jerry Blavat
What listeners say about Ball Four
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- Byron
- 08-09-12
Three Ten Year Updates Give Bouton a 5th Star
Ball Four is one of those books that I always thought I knew what it said and what it was about, and never had the least interest in picking it up and reading it. Although I would describe myself as a above average baseball fan, and my general interest in all topics baseball as high, for some reason, it had just never struck me that this was a book I should read. Maybe it was the fact that I knew Jim Bouton had been a Yankee. Maybe it was the fact that I knew the book had been controversial and somewhere along the way I had heard critical opinions of it. Maybe it was that noone ever grabbed me and said, "Byron, you should read this book!" (Or if they did, I didn't hear them.)
But over the past four years, I have become a ravenous listener to audiobooks, and over the last two years, have discovered that I have missed a lot of reading in my life. Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill have all caught my attention with their classic works. Then, last month, I starting browsing the baseball related books, looking to shift gears, and Ball Four caught my eye. When I downloaded it, I noticed that the book was read by the author. I didn't notice until I started the book that it also include three updates at 10 year intervals after the initial book was published. More about those updates in a minute.
I found the book somewhat interesting initially. Bouton starts at the beginning of the 1969 season, when he was playing for the expansion Seattle Pilots, and he makes frequent reference to his glory years with the Yankees earlier in the 60's, but he also makes it clear early on that things went sour for him in New York, although he never really presents the New York history in story-telling form. His focus stays on the 1969 season, and he presents it in almost diary format, where he bounces back and forth from things that happened or were said each day to reminisces from earlier in his career, with a particularly humorous way and seldom flattering way of describing current and former teammates. At times, he is absorbed with his own sense of self-importance, trying to figure out why he doesn't get respect from management or teammates.
A few weeks into the season, I began to wonder if I really wanted to finish the whole book. This was going to get tiresome going through the whole season, and I knew the Seattle Pilots did not have a good season, so there wasn't going to be any good baseball story there, I thought. But, perhaps for lack of a ready alternative, I hung in there, kept listening, and began to find myself absolutely absorbed in the season, and recognizing how incredibly thorough of a look inside the life of baseball players in the 1960s I was receiving.
By the time we got to the end of the season, and the end of the initial book, I felt thoroughly entertained and appreciative of the service Bouton had provided to me to bring the major league of my youth to life in a new way. There were times, as Bouton read his own book, when he would chuckle at the stories he was telling, which was annoying a couple of times, but on the whole, added to the read. Even as he poked fun at his teammates and managers for their foolishness, you saw that the pot was calling the kettle black, and I can to appreciate that Bouton was both egotistical and self-deprecating, and I decided I really liked the guy. If I had been a player, I would probably have been a lot like him.
It was clear why the book had been controversial. It was probably the first tell-all book, and he mocked some of the greats of the game. He portrayed Joe Schultz, the manager of the Pilots, and Sal Maglie, the pitching coach, as men without a clue as to how to make strategic decisions to win games, and he revealed the incredible cheap-ness of the owners. Bouton was earning a salary of $22,000 in 1969, so this was back in the days before any Tom, Dick, or Harry could strap on a glove and earn a million dollars, and the stories he tells on the owners are priceless.
Stopping at the end of the original Ball Four would have left a good taste in my mouth, and I would have written a 4 star review, and all would have been well. But, Bouton added the three updates, from 1980, 1990, and 2000, and this book jumped from 4 stars to 5 stars plus in my estimation.
Now a disclaimer here, the last update is tough...it involves a crying Bouton telling the sad story of the death of a family member. I'm a sap.. I appreciated it. You may not. It is not long, and if that's not your cup of tea, speed through it and move on.
But the richness of the updates come in two other ways: 1) he gives incredible insight into life after baseball. Going to visit the former teammate who now has a plumbing business was just wonderful. 2) he discusses the evolution of the response to the book, which was not well received my many teammates or by the baseball establishment. It was notorious, far beyond what it deserved in my opinion, but that just speaks to the shallow-mindedness of so many of the people in baseball. But through the updates, one gets a 30 year retrospective of how one man tried to take a stand, and to my way of thinking, we are better for his efforts.
If you are an Old baseball fan and have not read this book, get the audio version with Bouton reading it, and indulge yourself. If you are a young baseball fan, and don't know who Jim Bouton is, and did not know there was ever a major league team called the Seattle Pilots, let me introduce you to some baseball history. I think you will find it hard to believe much of what you read, but in the end you will realize the magnitude of the cultural change of the past 40 years since the concept of "free agency" was introduced into professional sports.
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82 people found this helpful
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- K. Palmer
- 04-20-12
The Only Man Who Could Tell It...
My story is almost exactly like a previous reviewer. I probably read Ball Four for the first time when I was around 15 and listened to Jim Bouton's reading at age 48. And I've read it numerous times in between. Only Jim can do this story justice. Sure, there are editing issues (at one point, there's about 30 seconds of Jim obviously turning pages as well as a couple of abrupt edits). But when you hear him laugh at his funny stories and cry while discussing the death of his beloved daughter Laurie, you know it's genuine. Whenever he talked about Laurie, the car got a little dusty, I have to admit. He's right, if you've been a fan for years, you are family. The only thing I wish is that they added his follow-up book "I'm Glad You Didn't Take It Personally" to this. I've read that a couple of times over the years and it would fit well. But, otherwise, a great reading of a great book by a great man!
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- Dennis Anderson
- 04-17-12
Author's reading provides new insight into classic
What did you love best about Ball Four?
I've read "Ball Four" many times over the years from my first reading at age 15 until today at 49. I've enjoyed it each time. It's an inside look at a place most baseball fans don't get to see — the clubhouse. And as the game has evolved, it's now a place that no one will ever see again. I've passed the book along to my son and nephews, who all enjoyed it as well.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Jim Bouton. He offers insight into the life of a ballplayer, but also the life of someone trying to support and raise a young family. This is a story about life.
Would you listen to another book narrated by Jim Bouton?
Yes, if it were written by him. Bouton cracks himself up with some of the stories he wrote and he cries when he remembers the death of his daughter. As he writes, fans of Ball Four have become family, and he lets us into his life and shares the good times and bad. He's not a professional, but that's the beauty of this reading. It's his life and no one else but him can tell it as he has here. Thanks, Jim.
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18 people found this helpful
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- Dan
- 05-23-12
Plenty of Balls!
Would you consider the audio edition of Ball Four to be better than the print version?
I have not seen the print version but I actually enjoyed the content that actually followed the original Ball Four text which was more about Jim's life after his baseball career. Jim was very honest and wasn't afraid to express his feelings about any subject whether it be about baseball or his own personal life. I can appreciate that this book was a ground breaker in it's time but I only really started to enjoy it after the original Ball Four story. As a baseball story I preferred Dirk Hayhurst's "The Bullpen Gospels" but Jim's book was very good at capturing life after baseball which is a story that a fan does not often get to hear.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Ball Four?
The manager's trade mark quote "Okay boys lets go out and win so we can pound some Budweisers after the game" always made me laugh and Jim's heart wrenching narrative of his daughter's sudden death in a car accident was just pure raw emotion that brought me to tears.
Which character – as performed by Jim Bouton – was your favorite?
Joe Shultz the manager.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Jim and Mickey Mantle's correspondence prior to the Mick's death and Jim's invitation to the Yankee's Hall of Fame Game.
Any additional comments?
I had to be patient. The original Ball Four was written before I was born so I didn't know any of the characters and I couldn't really relate to them. It seemed like a whole lot of complaining by Jim that he wasn't pitching enough in key situations and it got tiring, but the stories that follow Ball Four are very worth the wait. I really enjoyed the development of Jim as a person after baseball. He proved to be very extraordinary person and I could see his story inspiring many athletes when their playing days are over.
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- PeppyD
- 04-27-12
This is the best book ever written by a player.
Any additional comments?
As a teenager in the 1970s, my favorite book was Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues”. I had not read the book from cover-to-cover in over 30-years. As a 49-year old man, I am pleased to report that “Ball is still as humorous, insightful, and relevant today as when it was published in 1970. It is the best book ever written by a baseball player and the best account of a player’s day-to-day travails during the long baseball season.
After Jim Bouton had hurt his arm and lost his ability to throw his signature fastball, he turned to the knuckleball in desperation. Ball Four, written in diary form, is Jim Bouton’s account of his struggle to hold onto his career, literally and figuratively, by his fingertips. Jim Bouton had spent 1968 in the minors and was not even sure that he would play major league baseball in 1969. He was signed by the expansion Seattle Pilots (now the Milwaukee Brewers) and was used as a mop-up relief pitcher. Towards the end of the season, he was traded to the Houston Astros, who were in a five-way pennant race.
Ball Four was a best seller in 1970 and probably still is the best selling American sports book of all time. It was named as one of The New York Public Library’s Books of the Century. Roger Angell attributed to the success of the book to Jim Bouton’s ability as a “day-to-day observer, hard thinker, marvelous listener, comical critic, angry victim, and unabashed lover of the sport”.
Ball Four gained notoriety, because it exposed baseball players as girl chasing, drug taking, and beer drinking guys with stunted emotional maturity. The players entertained themselves with juvenile pranks, hilarious antics, and insults. The book depicts team owners and general managers as being selfish misers. The Seattle Pilots’ coaching staff are cliché spouting incompetents, hypocrites, and petty tyrants. “Pound the old Budweiser” was the favorite expression and all-purpose advice of the manager of the hapless Seattle Pilots.
Sports writers and the baseball establishment hated the book, because they thought it was their self-appointed job to protect the wholesome, milk and cookies image of baseball players. Fellow players thought that Jim Bouton had violated locker room sanctity, as embodied in the familiar clubhouse sign stating: “What you see here, what you hear here, let it stay here when you leave here”. Of course, many of the players who criticized the book would eventually write their own kiss-and-tell memoirs.
Jim Bouton attracted the most attention and criticism for his stories about Mickey Mantle. Jim Bouton revealed how Mickey Mantle once hit a homerun while drunk. It wasn’t Jim Bouton’s intent to destroy heroes, but to humanize them. Why couldn’t Mickey Mantle be a hero who has a bit too much to drink from time to time? Mickey Mantle would later capitalize on his reputation as a drinker by appearing in a series of Miller Lite commercials.
The real significance of Ball Four was that it was written on the cusp of the players successfully challenging the reserve clause and winning their right to become free agents. Jim Bouton addresses how players were grossly underpaid by the team owners. When the minimum salary was raised from $8,000 to $10,000, the owners acted as if they were granting rookies and marginal players a raise.
The players tolerated this one-sided economic relationship, because the status quo is all that they that had ever known. Jim Bouton’s New York Yankees teammates in the early 1960s laughed when he proposed that the players should request that the minimum salary be increased to $25,000. The fact that players were property of the owners, to be underpaid, sold, traded, and released on a whim, was ingrained by a 100-years of organized baseball tradition.
The book recounts his one-side salary negotiations with the Yankees. He embarrassed the Yankees by telling reporters how much he wanted, so everyone knew that he was being reasonable and the Yankees were being unfair. After winning 20 games in 1964, the Yankees agreed to pay him $30,000 in 1965 on the condition that he not disclose his salary.
Team owner’s tightfistedness had not improved by 1969. Ballplayers roomed together on road trips, the team flew commercial flights, and the coaches kept track of baseballs during practice. The Seattle Pilots refused to reimburse Jim Bouton for a $50 case of Gatorade that he had purchased for the players during spring training.
Jim Bouton’s disdain for the monopolist owners and their treatment of players should be viewed in the context of rampant anti-establishment culture of the Viet Nam War era. His attitude towards authority is mirrored in the counter-culture films of the era, such as M*A*S*H, Alice’s Restaurant, and Easy Rider.
This version of Ball Four contains updates written in 1980, 1990, and 2000. Jim Bouton’s emotive narration places the listener in the moment. He laughs when telling comical stories and repeating the manager’s absurd one-liners; and he cries when describing the tragic death of his daughter. He also sings the country western parody song that he co-wrote in the bullpen and the Houston Astros’ bawdy fight song.
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- Andrew
- 05-07-12
Fabulous
Where does Ball Four rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I have listened to several hundred audio books and this was one of my all-time favorites. I loved listening to Jim read the story out loud. It was touching to hear him laugh at the funny memories and I cried along with him when he told the story of his daughter's death. Great book!
Which character – as performed by Jim Bouton – was your favorite?
Joe Shultz: ¨Pound those cookies into you, boys.¨
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No. It was good to listen to a bit at a time.
Any additional comments?
If you're a baseball fan, you'll love it.
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- Steven Fekete
- 05-17-20
A Rite of Summer
As much a part of Americana as spring training and getting a dog and a beer at the ballpark. Bouton demonstrates why he was such a terrific sportscaster and speaker. If you don't suffer along with him while listening to the chapters addressing his daughter's death, you aren't human
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- Michael W.
- 09-09-19
Worth a listen and to honor Mr. Bouton.
I've known about this book for a very long time, but never got around to reading it. When I saw it pop up on audible I snatched it up. Learning Mr.Bouton just passed away this July(2019) made it more poignant to me as he narrated it. There are a few very emotional parts at the end that really drew me in and the pain he still felt is obvious in his voice. By today's standards there is nothing really shocking to me. It's funny to see the original reactions that came out when it was released, most of whom didn't even read it. My feelings are he is still on point today about, players, owners and the press when it comes to sports. RIP Mr.Bouton
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- Buretto
- 07-29-19
Brilliant
I revisited this book following the death of Jim Bouton earlier this year, only vaguely remembering what I had enjoyed reading some 40 years ago as a kid. I knew that it had given me a healthy skepticism of the hero-worship of athletes and an even more skeptical view of sports management and ownership. And I remembered that it was funny, but I feared what had been funny to a 12 year old may not hold up. But I had nothing to fear, the book is as hilarious today as it was decades ago, accentuated by the author's own giddy presentation, often cracking up while delivering the lines. It most definitely is, in large part, an expose of boorish behavior of ballplayers of a different era. And, in fairness, the author's tacit acceptance of some of the less than acceptable activities can be a bit cringeworthy to a modern listener. But it is about so much more. Doing what you love, but not letting it consume you, for that thing not to be the be-all and end-all of your existence. That there is more to life than the cliches and unwritten rules of the game, whether in baseball or life.
And then, the addenda. The added chapters, in all their heartbreaking earnestness, elevate the book to an even higher plane. This is the life of a man laid bare, his voice giggling in relative innocence in one life, and seeming to barely have enough strength to speak through the tears in another. I wish it didn't have to, but it did exceed the original of 50 years ago.
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- rich collier
- 03-22-20
Very touching and heart felt
I was pleasantly surprised,Ball Four is funny and sensitive and made more effective with reading by Jim Bouton .
Highly recommended for anyone to listen.
Really rings true
Can’t judge a book by the cover.
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