EBOOK
About
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.
Today Ball Four has taken on another role-as a time capsule of life in the sixties.
This ebook version of Ball Four includes the first edition, the 1980, 1990, and 2000 updates, and 138 photos.
Almost everyone else, however, loved Ball Four. Fans liked discovering that athletes were real people-often wildly funny people.
Today Ball Four has taken on another role-as a time capsule of life in the sixties.
This ebook version of Ball Four includes the first edition, the 1980, 1990, and 2000 updates, and 138 photos.
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Reviews
"...the book that changed baseball."
NPR.org
"He has written . . . a book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact that it is by no means a sports book."
David Halberstam, who won a Pulitzer for his reporting on Vietnam
"It is not just a diary of Bouton's 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros. 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."
sportswriter Jim Caple