Bouton

The Life of a Baseball Original

By: Mitchell Nathanson

Narrated by: Barry Abrams

Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

From the day he first stepped into the Yankee clubhouse, Jim Bouton (1939-2019) was the sports world's deceptive revolutionary. Underneath the crew cut and behind the all-American boy-next-door good looks lurked a maverick with a signature style. Whether it was his frank talk about player salaries and mistreatment by management, his passionate advocacy of progressive politics, or his efforts to convince the United States to boycott the 1968 Olympics, Bouton confronted the conservative sports world and compelled it to catch up with a rapidly changing American society.

Bouton defied tremendous odds to make the majors, won two games for the Yankees in the 1964 World Series, and staged an improbable comeback with the Braves as a 39-year-old. But it was his fateful 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and his resulting insider's account, Ball Four, that did nothing less than reintroduce America to its national pastime in a lasting, profound way.

In Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original, Mitchell Nathanson gives listeners a look at Bouton's remarkable life. Based on wide-ranging interviews Nathanson conducted with Bouton, family, friends, and others, he provides an intimate, inside account of Bouton's life.

©2020 Mitchell Nathanson (P)2020 Tantor

Nice bio of sports and literary hero

This well written bio covers a lot of familiar ground with the baseball years and "Ball Four" going into detail with interviews with friends and family. More interesting is the coverage of Bouton's later years not addressed in various updates to "Ball Four" particularly his struggles as his health declined. One inconsistency is the recounting of the Phil Linz harmonica incident in which Nathanson credits Bouton rather than Mantle as the instigator. Abram's read is strong for the most part aside from a few mispronounced names, and in a few spots there appears to be editing errors as Abrams stops and says "alternate" before re-reading a line. On the whole a compelling bio of an underappreciated sports and literary hero.

Ball Four More

I enjoyed this very much. It held my interest and as the other reviewer indicated the harmonica story was inaccurate. It also drove me nuts to hear Phil Linz pronounced Phil Lince. Other than that, this book held my interest and I looked forward to the next time I would pick it up for the continuation. I would recommend it to those of us of a certain era who grew up with Bouton. It brought back memories for me.

average to less

very avetage notbdo great nate take a skate with Kate and now too bub hear

Rabbi Kirschbaum

All I heard was Rabbi Kirschbaum from Seinfeld.
Some good 3rd party perspective from Ball Four regarding Bouton divorce (No judgement here). Tough read (redundancy) if you’ve read Ball Four. I personally did not take much away other than mentioning of the Bouton family reaction to the divorce with Bobby who I do feel horribly for.

The narrator sounds like the Rabbi from Seinfeld who reveals Elaine’s inner feels about George’s engagement.