I was fiddle-farting around with the computer, and i typed in Bouton, as in Jim Bouton. I read "Ball Four" when it came out (that and Jerry Kramer's "Instant Replay") back in Junior High. What was it that he wrote about baseball that caused such a long, drawn-out ostracism of him from the game?. All I remember was a phrase something like "mincing around in their underwear like they were faries". Was there anything worse than that? Pete

What a great book! I read it when I was young (12 or 13) and it was a shock. I'd grown up reading those sports bios that were more like texts about the Catholic saints than real bios. "Mickey Mantle! Great father and man of the people!" kinds of things, total fiction.

In addition to the above mentioned incident--which no one wanted to even acknowledge--there was things like the players drilling holes in the dugout walls so they could peek at women's bushes ("beaver shots"), scenes of general drunkeness and sexual promiscuity--you know how those heteros are --and so on.

The book killed off the notion of baseball players as these heroic, clean, up-standing guys, doing their best at all times. I think it's really the first glimpse of the modern athlete that we're so familiar with now.

And Bouton was really cute in his early playing days.

The first sports book I ever read was _The Bronx Zoo_ by Sparky Anderson. I don't think I ever had illusions about sports figures. Somehow starting with a book about a guy whose hobby was sitting on other players birthday cakes without his pants on strips away layers of heroicism. Well, that and the fact that he shagged flies while his was open in the minors. I was young, too young to know why I found that so very interesting.

The Bronx Zoo was Sparky _Lyle_'s book, not Sparky Anderson's. I read it as a high school freshman. I've never really looked to athletes as idols, and TBZ only proved why. The Reggie Jackson-Greg Nettles-Billy Martin (before he was fired) combo in '78 made for a volatile mix.

Another great sports book, if you want to read more about players' (and one owner's) shenanigans, is Damned Yankees by Moss Klein and Bill Madden. Hands down one of the funniest sports books around. It covers the Yankees mostly in 1979-1990: all the managerial hirings and firings, the bad trades, and the free agent busts.

[quote]Originally posted by DavidInMA:
The Bronx Zoo was Sparky _Lyle_'s book, not Sparky Anderson's.

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You are, of course, 100% correct. I knew there were two Sparky's but couldn't remember the other name. Sparky Lyle: f*ckup Yankee relief pitcher who one a Cy Young award and wrote a book. Sparky Anderson: straightlaced Tiger's manager who reigned in Detroit for an awful lot of years with dignity and grace. Since I read the book as a child in Detroit, the two have often been slightly confused in my mind.

[ June 16, 2002: Message edited by: jqueer ]

In Ball Four Jim Bouton wrote about Micky Mantle showing up for day games woefully hung over from drinking binges the night before. Bouton was reprimanded by the Commissioner, who said such a comment was "reprehensible" and "outrageous." Years later, of course, Mantle himself admitted that Bouton's depictions of him were completely accurate. Bouton, however, is still persona non grata at Yankee Stadium.

[quote]Originally posted by Munson Man:
Bouton, however, is still persona non grata at Yankee Stadium.

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No longer the case ... Jim reconciled with the organization a couple years ago (after the accidental death of his daughter), and now attends Old Timers Day at the Stadium.

Oops, you're totally right, Bill W. I had forgotten the public reconciliation a few years back.

Reviving a very old thread ... Bouton came out this summer with his latest work: Foul Ball. It chronicles his fight to save and renovate the historic Wahconah Park stadium in Pittsfield, Mass. But standing in the way were the local bigwigs, banks, big business (GE) and the media. Sounds like a good read.

From a recent interview with him:

"This business of teams holding communities hostage, with the threat of losing their team, is a national story. Almost every city of any size in the country has either gone through this, is currently going through it, or will soon be going through it."

Bouton notes that 113 minor league baseball stadiums have been built in the last 20 years, and "almost all of them replaced a perfectly good stadium that, in most cases, the people in town had a fondness for."

... and a fun quote about living in Massachusetts : "It's a great place for writing. I'm an outdoor guy. I just like to walk through the woods. The only thing is, I still wear my Yankee hat. I wrote a piece recently for the Boston Globe about the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry, and I said I don't go out into the woods in my Yankee hat because there's too many hunters walking around with loaded guns wearing Red Sox hats. If I wear a Yankee hat, I might as well wear antlers."

Why doesn't he wear a Seattle Pilots hat?