Ball Four: still relevant

I recently picked up a copy of "Ball Four" to fill out my baseball library. I hadn't read it since high school, and I remembered enjoying it immensely then, so I figured I'd see how well it's aged.

The verdict? It's aged as well as Sophia Loren. I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed it the second time around. It's got to be the best writing ever done by a professional athlete. Jim Bouton is gut-wrenchingly honest, not only about the inner workings of a baseball club (which was terribly controversial at the time), but about his own shortcomings as well. I'm guessing that at this stage of my life, I'm better equipped to relate to his lamentations about the loss of his fastball and the throb in his shoulder than I was at 16. I found it touching, even painful at times, but always brutally honest.

I also can't believe how much of a controversy the book stirred up when it was published in 1970. I realize that before "Ball Four" hit the streets, the typical sports book was little more than a sugar-coated fable about a ballplayer performing heroic deeds, then telling kids to drink their milk and study hard in school.

But Bouton's revelations about what went on behind closed doors during his time with the Yankees, Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros are incredibly tame compared to today's standards. (Well, with the possible exception of the anecdote about Joe Pepitone and the piece of popcorn. I don't think that's ever going to be topped.) We learned that ballplayers could be crude, egotistical, selfish, funny, and -- gasp! -- human. We learned that they're not much different from the rest of us (even their salaries weren't so out of whack back then).

Perhaps that's what upset baseball insiders so much. Perhaps most of them loved being mythological figures, gazing down with disdain from their pedestals as we peons worshiped their heroism and bravery. When Bouton pulled back the curtain and revealed the honest truth about pro athletes -- that deep down, they're human beings like the rest of us -- that myth came crashing down. And the ballplayers and mythmakers (i.e. old-time sportswriters) didn't like it one bit.

So, to anybody looking for a good summer read, I say give "Ball Four" a shot. It's funny, it's human, and it's a great snapshot of many social and political aspects of our country in 1969. Plus, it's got the best closing line in a book that I've ever read:

"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time. -- Jim Bouton"