Ball Four

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Funny, persuasive and often moving

I am no baseball expert, being a Brit and having little interest in the sport until recently (mistakenly viewing it as a brash simplified version of cricket). In the last couple of years I have been trying to absorb - through reading and podcasts and TV - all I can about the sport. This has, thus far, been the highlight. An excellently written (and read) book with arguments a plenty, numerous laugh out loud moments and, particularly in the updated sections some very moving passages that were clearly, and understandably, very difficult for the author to read.

Basically I can't recommend this enough. Thank you.

Simply a must-read!

I’m a big baseball fan (thanks to channel 5 in my teen years) and had been searching for a decent baseball book for a while. Ball Four always came most recommended on various sites, but I wanted something more present, featuring the players I’d watched myself...I wasn’t interested in 60’s/70’s baseball. Rookie mistake, as you simply don’t have to be.

I eventually caved in when I came across the audio book and I’m grateful I did. No doubt i would’ve read the book eventually but the audio book is an absolute gem. Why? Because Jim Bouton himself is the narrator. This makes it. The book itself was groundbreaking, received high acclaim and is generally revered throughout the US...but I don’t think you could ever appreciate it fully until you’ve listened to ‘bulldog’ tell it himself.

The moments he’s regaling us with one of the many, hilarious stories from the ‘club-house’- struggling and frequently failing to hold back the laughter will have you in tears. A chapter or two in you’ll feel like you’ve known him for years! He comes across as a very affable man. One I would’ve loved to have met.

His personality and emotion shines throughout. Not only in the good moments but also the bad. I won’t give any spoilers but I challenge anyone not to cry along with Jim as he reads about an incident, which undoubtedly was the lowest point in his life. It’s genuinely heartbreaking listening to him struggle to get through the chapter.

I’d recommend ball four-the final pitch (his last edition) to anyone. If you know baseball you’d appreciate it more. If you’re not it certainly isn’t a dealbreaker, although I advise you atleast read up on the basics of the role of a pitcher, so it doesn’t go over your head.

It’s without doubt my favourite book and I doubt I’ll ever actually read it. Why, when the author himself can read it to me and do it as though he’s sitting with you in a bar, pounding the old Budweiser!

Get this audiobook, you won’t regret it.

Best sports book I have read

No idea who most of the characters are...
No idea who most of the teams are....
No idea about most things baseball related...
(I'm Irish)
Yet I finished the book & wanted to learn everything there is to know about the sport & the man Jim Bouton.

So well written & delivered

Can recommend highly enough