As a player, former hurler Jim Bouton did nothing half-way; he threw so hard he'd lose his cap on almost every pitch. In the early '70s, he tossed off one of the funniest, most revealing, insider's takes on baseball life in Ball Four, his diary of the season he tried to pitch his way back from oblivion on the strength of a knuckler. The real curve, though, is Bouton's honesty. He carves humans out of heroes, and shines a light into the game's corners. A quarter century later, Bouton's unique baseball voice can still bring the heat.


Review
A book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact it is by no means a sports book" —David Halberstam

"Ball Four is a people book, not just a baseball book." —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times


Review
A book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact it is by no means a sports book" —David Halberstam

"Ball Four is a people book, not just a baseball book." —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

ANNOTATION

Unavailable for several years, Ball Four, in this twentieth-anniversary edition, is sure to be discovered by a whole new generation of readers as more than a trailblazing sports book, but also a great book on the American dream fulfilled.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact it is by no means a sports book" —David Halberstam

"Ball Four is a people book, not just a baseball book." —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

When Ball Four was first published in 1970, it hit the sports world like a lightning bolt. Commissioners, executives, players and sportswriters were thrown into a state of shock. Stunned. Scandalized. The controversy was front-page news.
Sportswriters called Bouton a Judas, a Benedict Arnold and a "social leper." Commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force the author to sign a statement saying that the book wasn't true. One team actually burned a copy of Ball Four in protest.And Bouton is still not invited to Oldtimers' Day at Yankee Stadium.
Fans, however, loved Ball Four and serious critics called it an important document. It was also very popular among people who didn't ordinarily follow baseball, because Ball Four is not strictly a book about baseball, but one about people who happen to be baseball players. And it's hilariously funny.
For the twentieth-anniversary edition of this historic book, Bouton has written a new epilogue, detailing his career as an inventor, his battles with the Wrigley Company over bubble gum, his take on the Pete Rose controversy, and how baseball looks two decades after he changed its public image forever.

Author Biography: Jim Bouton, former major league pitcher, is now a writer, businessman, motivational speaker and ace pitcher for a semipro baseball team near his home in Teaneck, New Jersey.