Review of "Bouton"

Every avid baseball reader has at some point read the book "Ball Four."  Whether a reader likes it or not, no one can deny it had a profound effect on the game.  A biography has been written about the author of "Ball Four", Jim Bouton, and it is just as compelling a book.  Here is my review of "Bouton"

Title/Author:

“Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original” by Mitchell Nathanson

Tags:

Baseball, biography, author, Yankees, Pilots, Astros, Braves

Publish date:

May 1, 2020

Length:

456 pages

Rating:

5 of 5 stars (outstanding)

Review

When the book “Ball Four” was published in 1970, it shook the baseball world to its core. It was basically a tell-all book, and it wasn’t the first book of its kind as “The Long Season” was a similar book published a decade earlier and “Behind the Mask” also previously released. But given the some of the lurid (for the times) details of the day-to-day life of a ball player, the exposure of just how one-sided contract negotiations were before the days of free agency, and some other secrets exposed, “Ball Four” was so controversial that the commissioner of baseball, Bowie Kuhn, demanded a meeting with the author, pitcher Jim Bouton. This book is a wonderful biography of Bouton by Mitchell Nathanson that shows there is much more to Bouton than just a baseball player.

The reader will learn that early on, while Bouton was a competitive person and loved to play sports, he also wanted to learn other facets of life as well.  This isn’t to say he was an outstanding student, but he was a keen observer and liked to acquire knowledge from many different sources, not just textbooks. Something else that is interesting about his early life is that his youth sports experience was ahead of its time as he wanted to devote all his energy to one sport, baseball, instead of multiple sports.

His baseball career is a very interesting section of the book as Nathanson not only talks about his time as a successful pitcher for the Yankees, but also about Bouton’s relationship with pitching coach Johnny Sain.  Like so many other pitchers, Sain not only made Bouton a better pitcher but also left a lasting impression.  Nathanson even makes talking about Bouton’s quirk of having his hat fall off his head on nearly every pitch seem intriguing.

But injuries and a fastball that wasn’t as fast any longer led to a decline in Bouton’s effectiveness and he ended up with the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1969.  But that season turned out to be the most important one in Bouton’s life as he took copious notes, recorded many conversations and basically documented nearly everything that happened during his season with the Pilots.  Bouton also never got rid of those papers and cassette tapes, storing them in what became the “butter yellow box.” He took those notes and wrote “Ball Four” with the help of sportswriter Leonard Schecter. While it was a hit with many baseball readers, especially younger ones with whom Bouton shared many similar political and cultural beliefs, it caused quite a commotion in the baseball establishment.  Not only in the commissioner’s office, but in locker rooms and press boxes all across baseball, “Ball Four” exposed many secrets that weren’t too kind to the game.

While the book was a best seller, it did effectively blackball Bouton from not only the Yankees, who would not invite him back to the stadium for nearly 30 years, but also from baseball.  He did attempt comebacks (this trait is shown time and time again by Nathanson with some wonderful prose) in all levels of the game, which culminated in a short stint on the roster of the Atlanta Braves in 1978, but for all intents and purposes, he struggled with baseball after writing the book.

Of course, the thirst for knowledge outside of baseball kept Bouton busy on other projects, including writing other books.  These included follow-ups to “Ball Four” titled “I’m Glad You Didn’t Take It Personally” and “Ball Five”.  There was also a book about the town of Pittsfield, Massachusettes when they proposed replacing a very old ballpark with a newer one called “Foul Ball.”  While the incentive behind writing that was to expose corruption in the town instead of anything about the game of baseball, Bouton met the same fate as he did with “Ball Four”, namely that he made many new enemies.

Nathanson’s account of these endeavors of Bouton, as well as the sharing of his personal life that resulted in a divorce and subsequent re-marriage that changed him profoundly, make for great reading that will be difficult for a reader to put down.  If the reader has ever read “Ball Four”, then this book is one that he or she must add to their library as well as it is a great account of the man behind the legendary book.

I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

                                                                       

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)                                                                                                                               

Buying Links:

https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9781496217707/

https://www.amazon.com/Bouton-Baseball-Original-Mitchell-Nathanson/dp/1496217705/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=