About this title: This classic baseball memoir and behind-the-scenes tell-all upset the hero-worshiping press, public, and officials of Major League Baseball when it was first published in the early 1970s--but it has been a perennial seller ever since. Its anecdotes of fellow players on and off the field are filled with humor and the love of the game, and it makes clear that the game of baseball was in the process of change.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9781582613109ISBN:1582613109
Description: Good. Standard used condition. May have light reading or storage wear. All orders processed within 2 business days. Ships from Foxboro MA. read more
Description: World Publishing Company, New York, 1970; Very Good; Very Good d/j Cliped price corner); Sixth Printing; My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Word Publishing Co., New York
Date Published: 1970
Description: Fair in Fair jacket. This book has some shelf wear as well as tanning and marks on the cover and pages. The library stamps and stickers are still on this book. This book is 400 pages on baseball. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: World Publishing Company, NY and Cleveland
Date Published: Aug 1970
Description: Very Good in Good jacket. Blue cloth, Very good, DJ Good with curling ends & one tear. Clean inside. 6th printing. A must read book for the baseball lover. 6th printing. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: World
Date Published: 1970-01-01
Description: Good. Hardcover, wear, fading and large tears to dust jacket, hinges loose but no splits, faded-spotted page edges, clean text, binding still good. Good. Ships within one business day with delivery confirmation. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: 1971 Dell Publishing, NY
Description: 1st paperback printing, softcover has some light cover marks and the text pages are beginning to age tan; otherwise the book is very good, with clean, unmarked pages and likely never read. Bouton's famous inside look at baseball. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
Date Published: 1990-07-26
ISBN-13:9780020306658ISBN:0020306652
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780020306658. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: 1990 Collier Books/Macmillan, NY
Description: Later printing, softcover edition with slightly turned corners, otherwise very good. SIGNED and dated 8/2/93 with a brief inscription on the title by Jim Bouton. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Wiley
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780020306658ISBN:0020306652
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Bulldog Publishing (MA)
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780970911704ISBN:097091170X
Description: New. No dust jacket. New condition with clean pages. No markings or folds. No dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Bulldog Publishing (MA)
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780970911704ISBN:097091170X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. 100% satisfaction guaranteed. No Remainder Mark, No Damage. Ship twice daily. U.S. Standard delivery Only (Oversize Book). Glued binding. Paper over boards. Audience: General/trade. read more
"Even in today's stories of steroids and other excess found in contemporary baseball books, "Ball Four" is still a delightfully crude expose of the game, if for no other reason than there had never been such an expose before. But what made "Ball Four" for me was Bouton's feeling of being a chronic outsider but still managing to point out the foolishness around him. I'd long been able to relate to the "outsider" part when I first read this at age 15, but I'd never read any prose that made the insiders look so ridiculous. His ear for irony and often matter-of-fact descriptions of the daily barrage of outrages, absurdities, and lunacies that permeated baseball makes this certainly the best sports book I've ever read, and easily the most influential. It's influenced my writing more than any book I've ever read. I'm pleased to make my first review on goodreads a review of "Ball Four.""
"Sad to say, baseball nut that I am, this book stayed below my radar for years on end, when it finally became a known quantity in my life as a fan I viewed it as something rather like Great Expectations definitely on the reading list, just waiting for you to tackle it and be stunned.
However, rarely does the book live up to the hype. I fully expected a gripping story full of mystery and wonder, wit and grace, evocative prose reliving the highs and lows of a season on the road. And in the course of the novel Bouton certainly does have his moments of exalted eloquence, the single sentence: "sometimes I forget to tingle" alone is worth the read.
Yet, most of the book is mundane, filled with the quotidian events in a season as a ballplayer. It's 162 games, it's months and months of your life, it's tiring, exhausting, spirit-crushing work (particularly if you're anything less than the greatest player ever), and Bouton chronicles that part of the season masterfully. The locker room banter, the minor fracases and major feuds, the games they play, the haggling with owners and executives, the women--my god--the women. And while much of the book is full of inside jokes, there's enough to amuse anyone and several insightful observations about the growing sentiment of anti-intellectualism in the 1960s. (Best of all, he hates the Yankees, how can any baseball fan (other than Yankees fans) not love the book when he hates the Yankees so much.)
While I prefer my baseball literature in a more compelling, dramatic vein, I do appreciate the subtle graces and easy pleasures of a season with a washed up knuckle-ball pitcher with absurd philosophies and good dose of charm."
"Billed as one of the most (if not the most) important sports book ever, Ball Four reads as a diary of Jim Bouton's struggle to stay relevant in 1969 having reinvented himself as a knuckleball pitcher. It's important because at the time it blew the lid off the use of "Greenies" (amphetamines) womanizing, overdrinking, and other such habits rampant in the baseball world.
Now, on its own with all of these things common knowledge, the book still reads well. There's as much in there about illegal activities as there is about his kids. Bouton keeps the story grounded and doesn't read like the average baseball player memoirs. Witty, informative, and smart, I reccomend it."
"This is not the book for those of you yearning for the old days when ballplayers played for their love of the game. If you wish steroid scandals would just get brushed under the rug and The Mick was raking in Yankee stadium again, Ball Four might just break your heart a little. Jim Bouton opened a door that has never been forced shut again when he aired the Yankees' (and by extension, major league baseball's) dirty laundry. This is a genuinely funny and enlightening book written by an insider with intimate, first-hand knowledge of the misbehavior of some of the most lauded teams of recent time. Highly recommended for any baseball fan."
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