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Ball Four [Paperback]

Jim Bouton (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
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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: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #46,837 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #7 in  Books > Sports > Coaching > Baseball
    #12 in  Books > Sports > Baseball > Essays & Writings

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More About the Authors

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Jim ba Bouton
Jim ba Bouton
Leonard Shecter
Leonard Shecter

Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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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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Customer Reviews

100 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (100 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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47 of 48 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
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Ball Four (Paperback)
"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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40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars the first to expose how players used the groupies, April 5, 2008
This review is from: Ball Four (Paperback)
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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30 of 33 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)   
This review is from: Ball Four (Paperback)
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 Favorite Baseball book
This my favorite book about baseball, and I have read quite a few. I've seen reviewers who didn't like the book because they felt Bouton trashed some people, especially Mickey... Read more
Published 2 months ago by D. L. Scarborough

4.0 out of 5 stars baseball fans
i found this book to be very different from most sports books takes you to the inside of theteam and the relationships among players and managers very funny and written almost... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mel Levine

4.0 out of 5 stars very good baseball book
bouton tells a very good story. he shows the funnier side to baseball...and the side that most people don't get to see--what happens in the bullpen during a game, what happens in... Read more
Published 2 months ago by judson hickinbotham

5.0 out of 5 stars Baseball Fans Will Enjoy
Well written book and expose about the baseball industry. Anyone who enjoys baseball will enjoy this book. Don't be discouraged by the book length. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Gail Brewster

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is NOT autographed as indicated in the image accompanying the book.
Image accompanying book is misleading. Book is not autographed, and Amazon never was able to explain why erroneous image was included or to produce an autographed book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by cjd

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just a baseball book
This is BY FAR the best baseball book I have ever read. But in addition to that, it's one of the best books of any genre that I've ever read. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Michael Faro

5.0 out of 5 stars The Original Iconoclast of MLB
I recall reading Jim Bouton's revealing expose when it was first released, at the conclusion of the 1969 season. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Larry Underwood

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 16 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 on June 17, 2008 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 on March 16, 2008 by mark twain

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