Ball Four

 

Ball Four – by Jim Bouton

One of the many things that the 1939 classic film ‘Gone With the Wind’ is known for was that it was the first major film to feature a swear word. Apparently when Rhett Butler muttered “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”, it was so scandalous that it caused little old ladies in their theater seats to reach for their smelling salts.  That seems almost unbelievable when 50 years later, you almost needed a mainframe computer to keep track of all of the “F” words in a typical Martin Scorsese movie.  Times definitely change.

I mention this analogy because I basically felt the same way reading this “controversial, scandalous” book 50 years after it was written.  This non-fiction book written by baseball player Jim Bouton ruffled so many feathers when written, that the then commissioner Bowie Kuhn threatened (then pleaded) Bouton to state that the book was actually fiction and Bouton made the whole thing up.  Bouton, of course, refused.  Reading this book so many years later, it really is hard to see what all the fuss was about.  This thing now seems relatively tame.  Especially if one has read the scores of recent books by the many colorful athletes such as Jose Canseco, David Wells, and Lenny Dykstra.  Modern day readers of this book expecting to be “shocked” are likely to be disappointed instead.

This book chronicles a year of baseball player Jim Bouton, and essentially serves as a diary and an observation of one year of his baseball life.  Jim Bouton had his best years in the early 1960s.  This book details his 1969 season, when his best years were obviously behind him.  It also doesn’t make things any more interesting when Bouton played for the expansion Seattle Pilots that year.  For those who don’t know, the Pilots lasted an entire one year in Seattle before they became the Milwaukee Brewers.  By then, Bouton was long gone.  Then we look at his role on the team.  In 1969, Bouton was relegated to the bullpen as mostly a mop up/ long relief pitcher, which is usually reserved for the least effective pitchers on the squad.  So when such a mediocre individual dictates the year of a mediocre team, you’re likely to come away feeling quite bored throughout much of the book.  We constantly read about Bouton working on his knuckleball in the bullpen and whining to his coaches for more playing time.  This whining of his goes on for most of the whole season.  It gets old quick.

But the episodes of the book that made this thing so memorable, though, wasn’t his own struggles, yet his R-rated observations of the ballplayers that he played with and played against.  So yes, we read about players taking “broads” back to their hotel rooms and popping “greenies” (amphetamines) before the games, but it all seems quite tame 50 years later.  Much of the verbiage, jargon, and anecdotes that the author shares really haven’t aged that well either and most of his funny stories really aren’t that funny.  It’s also quite difficult keeping track of the multitude of players and coaches on the team. Part of this is because 90% of the players from 1969 aren’t really well known to most modern fans of the game. Today most fans can’t recollect people like Tommy Harper, Mike Marshall, and Doug Rader.  These guys weren’t that bad back then, but history has a way of erasing most of the ‘good’ players from fans’ memories, and we tend to only remember the ‘greats’.

It was quite interesting, though, and a bit sad to see how much the game really has changed.  In particular, these players were a far cry from ‘wealthy’.  This book was written before the free agency boon came into play a few years later. This finally dictated that ball players should actually be payed what they’re worth.  So in 1969, the best of the best of the best of ball players were majorly taken advantage of by their greedy owners.   It seems quite ridiculous hearing Bouton negotiating to be paid $19,000 per year when his team won’t budge over $17,000.   True, $17,000 per year went a lot further in 1969 than it does now, but when compared to eight-figure salaries that ballplayers nowadays make, you can’t help but feel such an amount is nothing more than worthless chump change.

So a lot of complaining about money, a lot of whining about not getting enough pitching time, and the general skullduggery of ballplayers sneaking out past curfew after night games, don’t really hold up that well when we read about such shenanigans over an entire baseball season.  In fact, the most interesting parts of Bouton’s reflections of the 1969 season deal with when he’s briefly sent to the minors early in the season, and when he’s traded to the Houston Astros late in the year.  The Astros (unlike the hapless Pilots) actually had a slim chance of making the playoffs, so the day by day accounts were a bit more interesting.  Really, though, the only reason why these episodes are more interesting is because they somehow breakup the monotony of Bouton’s entire lifeless season.

I should also put out that the author ‘re-released’ this book 10, 20 and 30 years after the 1969 season.  Each of these releases feature a new chapter from the author with his reflections on the last ten years since he last “talked” to us.  Sadly, though, these additions really aren’t that interesting.  Sometimes he’ll make reflections on how the game has changed, and these are fun to read.  Unfortunately, though, he mostly peppers these later chapters with personal information that simply didn’t interest me.  Nothing personal, but I really didn’t want to read about his sour marital relations nor his various business ventures.  Had there been more baseball, I might have enjoyed these sections more, but overall it was a chore to read.

Still, though, when I review the book, I really need to be fair and try to imagine how it must felt reading this thing in the year 1970 instead of 2020.  History tells us that it was a revelation at the time, so I can’t let my modern tastes be too cruel to the experience.   I would advise modern fans to read other books by their current day heroes first.  Then, go back and give this one a try and see how it compares against some of the latter day works.   For me, this thing simply hasn’t aged that well.