Ball Four: The Final Pitch (Unabridged) Ball Four: The Final Pitch (Unabridged)

Ball Four: The Final Pitch (Unabridged‪)‬

    • 4.2 • 41 Ratings
    • $25.99

    • $25.99

Publisher Description

Ball Four: The Final Pitch is the original book plus all the updates, unlike the 20th Anniversary Edition paperback.

When Ball Four was published in 1970, it created a firestorm. 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. Ballplayers, most of whom hadn’t read it, denounced the book. It was even banned by a few libraries.

Almost everyone else, however, loved Ball Four. Fans liked discovering that athletes were real people--often wildly funny people. Many readers said it gave them strength to get through a difficult period in their lives. Serious critics called it an important document.

David 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.”

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.

Besides changing the image of athletes, the book played a role in the economic revolution in pro sports. 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.

Today Ball Four has taken on another role--as a time capsule of life in the 60s. "It is not just a diary of Bouton's 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros," says sportswriter Jim Caple. "It's a vibrant, funny, telling history of an era that seems even further away than four decades. To call it simply a "tell all book" is like describing The Grapes of Wrath as a book about harvesting peaches in California."

GENRE
Sports & Outdoors
NARRATOR
JB
Jim Bouton
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
18:40
hr min
RELEASED
2012
April 7
PUBLISHER
Audible Studios
PRESENTED BY
Audible.com
SIZE
913.4
MB

Customer Reviews

maui tom ,

My fav book ever...

My Dad bought it for me when it came out and I made myself read only 20 pages a night....to hear Jim read this is fantastic....gut wrenching.....just about every emotion out there.......was overjoyed to see this on audio.....get this and as always....smoke him inside....then go pound that Budweiser....

Rob Engle ,

Ball four meaning to me

I’m 24 years old born in 1997. This book clearly takes place way before my time. Listening to this book, it didn’t feel that way. I felt like I was living the events with him, and cheering for him to do well as the book went on. My dad has been encouraging me to read this for probably about a year now. He read it as a kid, and knew I’d love listening to this book. I’ve now finished the entire ball four, ball five, ball six, and ball seven series, and I have to say that I’m sad it’s over. I’d recommend this book to anyone, of any age. What a beautiful book of a man who is just like any ordinary guy.

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