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Ball Four (Paperback)

by Jim Bouton (Author) "I signed my contract today to play for the Seattle Pilots at a salary of $22,000 and it was a letdown because I didn't have..." (more)
Key Phrases: ball four, baseball commissioner, bullpen tonight, Joe Schultz, Tommy Davis, Mike Marshall (more...)
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
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Customers buy this book with Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

Ball Four + Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
Price For Both: $21.79

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  • This item: Ball Four by Jim Bouton

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
As a player, former hurler Jim Bouton did nothing half-way; he threw so hard he'd lose his cap on almost every pitch. In the early '70s, he tossed off one of the funniest, most revealing, insider's takes on baseball life in Ball Four, his diary of the season he tried to pitch his way back from oblivion on the strength of a knuckler. The real curve, though, is Bouton's honesty. He carves humans out of heroes, and shines a light into the game's corners. A quarter century later, Bouton's unique baseball voice can still bring the heat.

Review
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." --Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 465 pages
  • Publisher: Wiley; 20th Anniversary edition (July 12, 1990)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0020306652
  • ISBN-13: 978-0020306658
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32,633 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #8 in  Books > Sports > Baseball > Coaching
    #12 in  Books > Sports > Baseball > Essays & Writings
    #90 in  Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Biographies

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
I signed my contract today to play for the Seattle Pilots at a salary of $22,000 and it was a letdown because I didn't have to bargain. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
ball four, baseball commissioner, bullpen tonight, good knuckleball, overhand curve, player rep, knuckleball pitcher, fellow proud, diathermy machine, clubhouse man, first hitter, clubhouse meeting
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Joe Schultz, Tommy Davis, Mike Marshall, Sal Maglie, Fred Talbot, Gary Bell, Harry Walker, Marvin Milkes, Eddie O'Brien, Ray Oyler, New York, Steve Barber, Steve Hovley, Jim Bouton, Kansas City, World Series, Norm Miller, Johnny Sain, Mickey Mantle, Marty Pattin, Don Mincher, Red Sox, Seattle Pilots, Dooley Womack, The Colonel
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Ball Four
89% buy the item featured on this page:
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Customer Reviews

93 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (93 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Groundbreaking, Entertaining, and Funny Book, May 9, 2002
By R. Angeloni "slicktiger28" (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
"Ball Four" is a diary that covers the year of a baseball player, in this case Jim Bouton, who spent the 1969 season with the expansion Seattle Pilots and then the Houston Astros. Entertaining on many levels, "Ball Four" also serves as a mirror of the times -- in the late 1960s, many established concepts and ideas, in politics, music, mass media, and sports, were being shattered. Baseball, always about five years behind the curve, was always thought of as a game that was played by wholesome, All-American men. They were our heroes. Ball Four, however, sheds new light and revealed, for the first time, that baseball players, even some of the game's superstars, are human.
Bouton tells all, in, by today's standards, a tame fashion. We read about everything -- ballplayers cheating on their wives, playing with hangovers, racial problems between teammates, players taking uppers before a game, etc. Bouton is a very insightful writer and presents the material in a humorous manner, the humor, or barbs, is directed at his teammates, managers, coaches, and, in many instances, at himself.
Baseball was outraged when the book first came out in 1970. Many players and baseball executives considered Bouton a turncoat. But the years have shown that Ball Four was a groundbreaking book, one that set the standard for tell-all books to come. These other books, however, have never reached the level of excellence of Bouton's "Ball Four."
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars the first to expose how players used the groupies, April 5, 2008
Jim Bouton is a very bright man who probably could have been a scientist if he didn't go into baseball. In the 1960s when he played nobody wrote colorful exposes of the behind the scenes and road trip life of major league ball players. Bouton was the first with this book. It ended many friendships with teammates and probably broke up his marriage. The book might seem tame by todays standard. Alcohol was the players drug in those days and no one was shooting up steroids back then. But the book was racy, groundbreaking and controversial in its time much like Canseco's books are today.

You will also see that it led to several other books by Jim Bouton and even one by his ex wife (another analogy to Canseco whose ex wife also wrote a book). Bouton was a great pitcher but alas for only the period from 1961-1964. 1963 was his best season but even though he pitched well in that world series the Yankees got steamrolled by the Dodger staff with Drysdale and Koufax leading the way. After retirementhe came back to pitch for the Seattle Pilots expansion team in their first year. He had developed a knuckle ball and that allowed him some limited success. Bulldog Jim wrote a book about that experience too. He had a trick when he pitched for the Yankees. He wouldd deliberately wear a very loose fitting cap that would usually fall off his head as he delivered the pitch. This was distracting for the hitters. But in his day Bouton had a good fastball and a deceptive changeup and he was part of a great pitching rotation in 1963 that included Ford, Downing and Terry.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Baseball Book Ever Written, August 17, 1999
By Weston J. Kathman (Lakeside Park, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
As far as I'm concerned, Ball Four is easily the best baseball book out there. I've read about 45 baseball books and nothing compares to Bouton's masterpiece. I've read this book four times and it still hasn't gotten old yet. I'm sure I'll read it at least ten more times and I doubt that I will ever get tired of it.

What makes Ball Four better than any other baseball book is that it allows its readers to see the game from a player's perspective. Never has a book given such an up-close, in-the-locker-room look at baseball. Of course, Bouton himself is brilliant. I love his sarcasm and his biting wit. Ball Four might have been a pretty good book even if it had been written by a poor writer; Bouton, though, is an excellent storyteller and his attitude is what shapes the book. If you consider yourself a fan of the game, you will buy Ball Four immediately. It has given me great joy time and time again.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The knuckleball- the oddest thing in all of sports
It's hard to imagine an odder pitch than a knuckleball, or a better metaphor for the Jim Bouton "comeback" season he chronicles in Ball Four. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Glenn Yates

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, Profane and Honest. Play Ball
This was a provocative book when it was first published. Jim Bouton, who had been a star pitcher for the New York Yankees, was trying to mount a comeback by working on a... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Borowy26

5.0 out of 5 stars important book
even now, the contents of "ball four" are as equally as contrary to what you think about the order of things as say the first time you hear that hawaiians aren't happy about being... Read more
Published 16 months ago by mark twain

4.0 out of 5 stars Ball Four was a HIt
Ball Four is a journal of Jim Bouton's days in baseball. It is light hearted and pokes fun at himself and tells it like it was in the 1960's. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Robert Trice

5.0 out of 5 stars Knee Surgery Gift
Hubby had knee surgery and was laid up for 3 months.. did alot of reading when he wasn't in physical therapy.... GREAT BOOK
Published 18 months ago by D. Walczak

4.0 out of 5 stars Still funny after all these years
Still Hilarious the second time around. I've always been a baseball fan, coached by Dad and a family tradition. The humanizing of the players made me love it more. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Olmec

5.0 out of 5 stars Play ball!
This insider's account of playing in the big leagues is side-splitting entertainment. Bouton concentrates on the fun, the funny, and the amusingly odd aspects of what so many call... Read more
Published on May 16, 2007 by John Allen

5.0 out of 5 stars Men... or Boys?
This hilarious account of an injured pitcher's comeback will have you rolling on the floor as you get an interesting look at baseball players way back when.
Published on April 11, 2007 by Marina Kushner

4.0 out of 5 stars A hilarious inside look to why these are not men playing a kid's game. They are just big kids.
Jim Boutin was a very successful pitcher with the New York Yankees before injuring himself and having to become a knuckleball pitcher for the expansion Seattle Pilots. Read more
Published on April 4, 2007 by Todd Stanley

5.0 out of 5 stars My All-Time Favorite Book (in 1971); Still Way Up There on the List
My prospective 12th grade English teacher wasn't too impressed with my choice of an "all-time favorite book", but in 1971, "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton was it. Read more
Published on January 20, 2007 by David Zimmerman

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