![]() ![]() ![]() Today Ball Four has taken on another role-as a time capsule of life in the 60s. In 1975, Ball Four was accepted as legal evidence against the owners at the arbitration hearing, which lead to free agency in baseball and, by extension, to other sports. In 1999 Ball Four was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the “Books of the Century.” And Time magazine chose it as one of the "100 Greatest Non-Fiction" books.īesides changing the image of athletes, the book played a role in the economic revolution in pro sports. Serious critics called it an important document.ĭavid Halberstam, who won a Pulitzer for his reporting on Vietnam, wrote a piece in Harper’s that said of Bouton: “He has written… a book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact that it is by no means a sports book.” Many readers said it gave them strength to get through a difficult period in their lives. ![]() ![]() Fans liked discovering that athletes were real people-often wildly funny people. It was even banned by a few libraries.Īlmost everyone else, however, loved Ball Four. Ballplayers, most of whom hadn’t read it, denounced the book. Bouton was called a Judas, a Benedict Arnold and a “social leper” for having violated the “sanctity of the clubhouse.” Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying the book wasn’t true. When Ball Four was published in 1970, it created a firestorm. Ball Four: The Final Pitch is the original book plus all the updates, unlike the 20th Anniversary Edition paperback. ![]()
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