njhoya78
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 7,760
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Post by njhoya78 on Jul 10, 2019 20:45:53 GMT -5
I was a voracious reader while growing up in Bergen County, New Jersey. In 1970, Jim Bouton (who was born one town over from me, in Ridgewood) wrote a purported tell-all book that changed sports journalism forever. "Ball Four" was a hilarious, ribald and unvarnished review of his 1969 season with the expansion Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros. Almost a half-century later, it is still a remarkable work.
"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
Jim Bouton died today after battling dementia for years. He was 80 years old. Requiescat in pace, Bulldog.
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Elvado
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 10,473
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Post by Elvado on Jul 11, 2019 4:36:48 GMT -5
I was a voracious reader while growing up in Bergen County, New Jersey. In 1970, Jim Bouton (who was born one town over from me, in Ridgewood) wrote a purported tell-all book that changed sports journalism forever. "Ball Four" was a hilarious, ribald and unvarnished review of his 1969 season with the expansion Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros. Almost a half-century later, it is still a remarkable work. "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 Jim Bouton died today after battling dementia for years. He was 80 years old. Requiescat in pace, Bulldog. Amen. Bouton’s book was one of, if not the first, look behind the curtain when it came to MLB. It still holds up today, and in large measure was a prescient work.
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DanMcQ
Moderator
Posts: 30,471
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Post by DanMcQ on Jul 11, 2019 8:53:31 GMT -5
“A ballplayer spends a good piece of his life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.”
RIP
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hoyarooter
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 10,182
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Post by hoyarooter on Jul 11, 2019 19:58:44 GMT -5
I was a voracious reader while growing up in Bergen County, New Jersey. In 1970, Jim Bouton (who was born one town over from me, in Ridgewood) wrote a purported tell-all book that changed sports journalism forever. "Ball Four" was a hilarious, ribald and unvarnished review of his 1969 season with the expansion Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros. Almost a half-century later, it is still a remarkable work. "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 Jim Bouton died today after battling dementia for years. He was 80 years old. Requiescat in pace, Bulldog. Amen. Bouton’s book was one of, if not the first, look behind the curtain when it came to MLB. It still holds up today, and in large measure was a prescient work. I know I can look this up, but I'm now wondering which came first, Ball Four or Pennant Race, another great book (Jim Brosnan). IIRC (going back a long ways), Bouton was treated as something of a pariah for a while after the book came out. I, for one, became a big fan. RIP, for sure.
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njhoya78
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 7,760
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Post by njhoya78 on Jul 12, 2019 9:08:56 GMT -5
Pennant Race predated Ball Four by eight years. Much different stylistically, but a great read.
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