Book review: Ball Four

In honor of the World Series, a baseball book: "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton.

This is an old one, which was highly controversial in its day. Written primarily in diary form, Bouton tells the day-to-day stories from throughout the 1969  season with the Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros. (The Pilots existed for only one year, becoming the Milwaukee Brewers the following season.)

Although it blew the lid off the baseball world at the time, it does show players as human beings going through the stress, drudgery, excitement – all the ups and downs of a several-month long season – and including the late nights, drinking, swearing, fights, contract issues, etc. Everything that happens behind the scenes, but in those days, as not acknowledged publicly.

I remember that I read it as a kid then, but nothing particular came back to me, other than the names of many famous players who were the stars at the time.

Some of the best lines:

• Pilots manager Joe Schultz: “It’s a round ball and a round bat and you got to hit it square.”

• Pitching coach Johnny Sain: “The world doesn’t want to hear about labor pains. It only wants to see the baby.”

• Baseball second-guessing: “If a guy can’t hit the curve ball, keep throwing the damn things until he proves to you he can hit it” followed by “ You can’t keep throwing a guy the same thing. He’s bound to hit it.”

• And along those lines, pitching scouting reports often talk about a player being a good first-ball hitter. “I want to hear somebody say ‘Good third-ball hitter. Likes to hit that third pitch.’ Then I’ll have learned something.”

• Greg Goossen, doing a Casey Stengel impression: “We got a kid here named Goossen, twenty years old, and in ten years, he’s got a chance to be thirty.”