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Ball Four
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Ball Four (edit title/settings)

My Life and Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues

by Jim Bouton (Author), Leonard Shecter (Editor) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

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... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Baseball has become a cheaper game, designed for unknowing fans accustomed to gross action over subtle beauty. It's part of a general dumbing down of society, reflected in shock-jock radio, Jerry Springer TV, and professional wrestling, which has become the new model for player behavior. Hype and bravado have supplanted truth and humility. Baseball has a cartoonish feel.”
  • “We got a kid here named Goosen, twenty years old, and in ten years he's got a chance to be thirty.”
  • “If you focus on the process rather than the goal, you'll achieve the goal more often.”
  • “Where before a jock mouthed platitudes into a tape recorder for a few hours, now he tells raunchy stories into the recorder for a few hours. Sensationalism has become a substitute for banality. We've gone from assembly-line gee-whiz books to assembly-line exposes.”
  • “There is an even greater danger in the deification of athletes who are ordinary men aside from their ability to star on a ballfield. And it is this: It diminishes that which is truly valuable.”
  • “"All day long they <the American public> lose," said a network vice president, "and when they watch television they want to win."”
  • “The irony is that losing the feeling that I had to top myself gave me the strength and the freedom to do just that.”
  • “The death of a child changes you in profound ways. It suddenly moves you to a new level of tolerance and empathy. I take nothing for granted today. I'm no longer so quick to judge a sour face, an angry tone of voice, a slumped demeanor. Who knows what that person's story might be? Maybe it's worse than mine.”
  • “Blurring the distinction between a real sport and a phony extravaganza can't be good for the sport in the long run.”

First Sentence edit see section history

I signed my contract today to play for the Seattle Pilots at a salary of $22,000 and it was a letdown because I didn't have to bargain.

Table of Contents edit see section history

For the Twentieth Anniversary Edition

Preface -- 1980, 1990
Editor's Forward
Introduction

BALL FOUR
Part 1 They Made Me What I Am Today
Part 2 "My Arm Isn't Sore, It's Just A Little Stiff."
Part 3 And Then I Died
Part 4 I Always Wanted to See Hawaii
Part 5 The Yanks Are Coming, The Yanks Are Coming
Part 6 Shut Up
Part 7 Honey, Meet Me In Houston
Appendix Tell Your Statistics To Shut Up

BALL FIVE -- Ten Years Later

BALL SIX -- Twenty Years Later

Photographs
The Boys of Ball Four
About the Editor
Index

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in TIME Magazine's All-TIME 100 Best Nonfiction Books. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Jim Bouton (Author)
  2. Leonard Shecter (Editor)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: United States
Publication Date: Add the publication date.
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 369

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