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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2001
It's easy to see why this extraordinary book created such a sensation when it first came out in 1970. Bouton, a sporadically successful pitcher nearing the end of his career, airs ALL of Major League baseball's dirty laundry--all those long and carefully concealed nasties and naughties, from relatively minor stuff such as the pervasive use of profanity to more serious issues like habitual drug use, heavy drinking and rampant womanizing. He also documents anti-intellectualism, lingering racial bigotry, homophobia and the casual cruelty of established stars towards rookies and fans. I kept wondering, as I read, to what extent Bouton himself participated in the activities he describes. He admits to drinking and popping the occasional "greenie" (speed, I assume), but never directly owns up to any marital infidelities.
He also exposed the dirtiest baseball secret of all, which wasn't sex, but salaries. It may come as a shock to present-day readers, accustomed to multi-millionaire baseball stars, to learn that players 30+ years ago earned barely subsistence wages and were totally at the mercy of club owners. I was flabbergasted to learn that Bouton, with a wife and three kids, earned LESS than my own extremely modest salary at that time as a (single) university Instructor!
But this book isn't a heavy-handed, moralistic indictment of Major League baseball. Instead, it's gloriously goofy and hilariously funny! As a writer, Bouton has a genuine, unique "voice," which I suspect owes very little to his editor. Someone could hand me a copy of any paragraph from _Ball Four_ and I'd recognize it instantly as Bouton. How many authors can you say that about?
To me, the funniest anecdote in a book full of marvelous stories is Bouton's report that the Seattle Pilots' manager fined players for appearing at the clubhouse post-game buffet--as Bouton delicately puts it--"with Charlie uncovered." In itself, this is a funny, somewhat crude anecdote; it's Bouton's additional comment that raises it to the level of high comedy art. He notes that if the Yankees had instituted the same rule they'd have made a fortune in fines, since Elston Howard and Yogi Berra both were "famous for dragging Charlie through the cold cuts." That line alone is worth the price of the book!
He also exposed the dirtiest baseball secret of all, which wasn't sex, but salaries. It may come as a shock to present-day readers, accustomed to multi-millionaire baseball stars, to learn that players 30+ years ago earned barely subsistence wages and were totally at the mercy of club owners. I was flabbergasted to learn that Bouton, with a wife and three kids, earned LESS than my own extremely modest salary at that time as a (single) university Instructor!
But this book isn't a heavy-handed, moralistic indictment of Major League baseball. Instead, it's gloriously goofy and hilariously funny! As a writer, Bouton has a genuine, unique "voice," which I suspect owes very little to his editor. Someone could hand me a copy of any paragraph from _Ball Four_ and I'd recognize it instantly as Bouton. How many authors can you say that about?
To me, the funniest anecdote in a book full of marvelous stories is Bouton's report that the Seattle Pilots' manager fined players for appearing at the clubhouse post-game buffet--as Bouton delicately puts it--"with Charlie uncovered." In itself, this is a funny, somewhat crude anecdote; it's Bouton's additional comment that raises it to the level of high comedy art. He notes that if the Yankees had instituted the same rule they'd have made a fortune in fines, since Elston Howard and Yogi Berra both were "famous for dragging Charlie through the cold cuts." That line alone is worth the price of the book!
