Rediscover: Ball Four

Major League Baseball pitcher and tell-all sportswriter Jim Bouton died last week at age 80. Between 1962 and 1978, he played for the New York Yankees, Seattle Pilots, Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves. In 1969, Bouton took notes on his season with the Seattle Pilots (their first and only year as a franchise) and later with the Astros. Those notes became Ball Four (1970), a candid look behind the scenes of Major League Baseball, including less than flattering depictions of fellow players. Bouton recounted his earlier years with the Yankees and Mickey Mantle, whose heavy drinking had been successfully hidden prior to Ball Four. Naming names, sharing information given in confidence and revealing secrets like the league's widespread use of amphetamines (or "greenies") made Bouton an industry pariah. Mantle and the Yankees did not resolve their grievances with Bouton until the 1990s.

Ball Four has since sold millions of copies worldwide and is considered a groundbreaking work of sports writing. Bouton's first followup to Ball Four, I'm Glad You Didn't Take It Personally (1971), examines the negative reaction by industry insiders. Ball Four has since been updated and republished several times, most recently with a new epilogue by Bouton, in Ball Four: The Final Pitch (Turner, $29.95, 9781630260347). --Tobias Mutter

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