Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* If Jim Brosnan's The Long Season (1960) lifted the lid on athletes' authentic behavior, Ball Four threw it wide open, allowing readers to see the feuds, fights, pettiness, frustration, boredom, practical jokes, sexual high jinks, and drug and alcohol abuse that filled a professional baseball player's working environment. And, in the days when reporters routinely censored the best quotes as unfit for family reading, Bouton told his story in the raw language athletes actually used. Written as a diary of the 1969 season, the book finds Bouton near the end of his career. Once a powerful starting pitcher for the New York Yankees (he won two games in the 1964 World Series), overwork and a 1965 injury have killed his fastball, and he hopes to reinvent himself as a knuckle-balling middle reliever with the expansion Seattle Pilots. Despite many observations about his Seattle teammates, what really attracted public notice were his tales about Yankees stars (the public had somehow been unaware of Mickey Mantle's love of drink), players' widespread abuse of amphetamines (or greenies), and the sport of beaver-shooting (players went to great lengths to look up women's skirts). Perhaps predictably, the book was wildly popular outside of baseball and wildly unpopular within it. But, bruised egos aside, it remains one of the best-selling and most influential sports books of all time. Its honesty and self-deprecating humor make it still well worth reading.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
