Former New York Yankees’ pitcher Jim Bouton passed away, on Wednesday, at the age of 80. He was a twenty-game winner in 1963 and helped lead New York to American League pennants in 1963 and 1964. He posted a lifetime record of 62-63 in parts of ten major league seasons. Bouton’s real lasting impact on baseball came not because of his fastball but because of his pen.
Knuckleball Reboot
Bouton won forty-five games in his first three seasons in New York. An arm injury in 1965 derailed his career. He would only win nine more games for the Yankees before being sold to the Seattle Pilots in 1968. Unable to throw his fastball without pain, Bouton turned to the one pitch he could throw without putting a strain on his ailing right arm—the knuckleball.
Bouton had toyed with throwing the knuckler early in his career, but he’d never been able to master it. He was given a chance to extend his big-league career with it when he was invited to spring training with the Pilots in 1969. He decided he would keep a diary of his experiences during that season, hoping to write a book. The book he would write would open the doors of major league clubhouses for all to see.
Diary of a Ballplayer
Ball Four was first published in 1970. It drew immediate criticism from both the baseball establishment and some of Bouton’s former teammates. The book follows Bouton and his teammates on their way to a last-place finish. The roster, full of has-beens and unknowns, provided Bouton with a treasure trove of funny stories and anecdotes which he chronicled in his note pad day after day. There was girl-watching in the bullpen, a pair of funny but somewhat cruel pranks on fellow reliever Fred Talbot (which included a fake paternity suit), and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Bouton talked openly about ballplayers drinking too much. Hardcore drinking was not just after the games but sometimes before and during them. He wrote about drug use, as well. he alleged that ballplayers routinely used amphetamines to push through the daily grind of the long season. He wrote about fights with teammates and disagreements with managers. It was these stories that landed him in hot water. He was chastised by the league and shunned by his former teammates.
Baseball Shuns Bouton
The backlash from Ball Four was immediate. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn summoned Jim Bouton to his office, furious over the content of what was becoming a best-selling book. Some former teammates, most notably Joe Pepitone and Mickey Mantle, would refuse to speak to Bouton for more than two decades. While many of his former Yankee teammates would be regular guests at the annual Old Timer’s Day, Bouton was not welcome. It would be nearly three decades before the organization would reach out to Bouton to mend fences.
A Book That Changed Everything
The biggest reason why Bouton’s book upset the baseball establishment is that it opened the curtain on how hard it was to make a living as a ballplayer in those days. Players had no multimillion-dollar contracts and no free agency. A player who struggled would find himself traded or released with no recourse. An injured player could be discarded like an old pair of spikes. The most compelling story was that of Bouton’s roommate, Gary Bell.
Bell had been a big leaguer for more than a decade but was still only 32 years old. He had been a hero two years earlier for his part in leading the Red Sox to the pennant in what is still referred to in Boston as the Year of the Impossible Dream. But 1969 found Bell struggling mightily. The more he struggled, the more he drank. Still a young man in any other profession, Bell found himself on the verge of being released and worried about how he would provide for his family. It’s poignant stories like Bell’s that give a book that is very funny a sense of realism and gravity.
A Baseball Fan Says Goodbye
Ball Four became a New York Times Best Selling book in 1970. It remains one of the top-selling books about baseball to this day. The New York Library has even included it as the only sports book on its list of the one hundred most important books of the twentieth century. I first read it about fifteen years ago and have re-read it three or four times since. Each time I read it, I find more reasons to laugh a little and even more reasons to cry.
Jim Bouton opened a door into the private world of major league baseball. Not everything on the other side is pleasant, but I’m glad he had the courage to open it. Bouton may be gone, but what he wrote will live forever. I’m grateful to him for giving us a chance to see the game through his eyes, and I sincerely regret his passing. Rest in peace, Jim Bouton, and thank you.
Main Photo: Embed from Getty Images
