When former New York Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton was reaching the end of his major league career in 1969 with the expansion Seattle Pilots, a publisher approached him to see if he would be willing to write a book about his baseball experiences.
"Ever since I was in the minor leagues in 1959, I was writing notes on anything I could," said Bouton, who was the featured speaker at New Jersey City University’s Speakers’ Series before 250 people Monday at Hepburn Hall. "[I wrote on] cocktail napkins, vomit bags, bar coasters, hotel stationery, anything that was available. I thought it was interesting that guys from all over the country were thrown together with nothing in common, except for the ability to play baseball. I wanted to share those stories with people, so I kept years and years of notes. Someone told me back then that those notes could make a good book."
Added Bouton, "And that’s how ‘Ball Four’ started. I never thought it would transcend into anything."
However, Bouton’s book became perhaps the most popular baseball book ever written, a compilation of stories that was so controversial at the time – because it opened the sacred doors of baseball clubhouses to the general public – that commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to ban the book from being published.
"It was thought to be a controversial book at the time, because I was the first one to tell all those locker room stories," he said. "At the time, the publisher only published 5,000 copies. But when the Ayatollah Bowie Kuhn tried the ban the book because it was controversial, the sales went to another 5,000. Then 50,000. Then 500,000."
Added Bouton, "After 30 years and three updates and the book being published in several languages, I can proudly say that ‘Ball Four’ has sold more than five million copies. I owe it all to Bowie Kuhn. I should have dedicated the book to him."
Bouton’s tell-all tale of baseball folklore has been considered by the Library of Congress as one of the Top 100 influential American books of the 20th century, along with "In Cold Blood," "Gone With the Wind" and "The Great Gatsby."
In retrospect, Bouton doesn’t feel that his book was that controversial and is actually pretty tame in current tell-all sports books standards.
"The real reason why ‘Ball Four’ was so controversial at the time was that it not only revealed locker room secrets, but it also portrayed baseball players in a different light," Bouton said. "I don’t know whether people were ready to read that Mickey Mantle used to play with hangovers. But the book was also the first one to tell how difficult it was for ballplayers to make a living back then. When you signed a contract, it was a lifetime contract with no choice. The year I was 21-7 for the Yankees (1963), my salary was $10,500. My average salary for nine years in the big leagues was $19,000."
Added Bouton, "That’s what the owners were afraid of. They were afraid that some judge would read the book and realize that baseball was in violation of the anti-trust laws. And that’s exactly what happened."
Five years after Bouton’s book was published, a Supreme Court judge ruled that baseball was in violation of the anti-trust laws, which led to free agency that still exists and has enabled players to collect the gigantic salaries they receive today. Bouton was called to testify in the hearings.
"For 100 years, the owners screwed the players," Bouton said. "So for the last 25 years, the players have screwed the owners. I figure they have 75 years to go to catch up."
Bouton said that the players who thought his book was bad 30 years ago never read it.
"They figured that the commissioner said it was bad, so it must be bad," Bouton said. "I was the first one to tell the players’ side. After all these years, it wasn’t that controversial."
Bouton, who was born in Newark and raised in Bergen County, spent most of the hour-long speech telling humorous tales of his past, including famous tales of the Yankees, where he spent six years, earning All-Star honors in 1963 and winning two games in the World Series in 1964.
"When I came to the Yankees in 1962, I didn’t drink, smoke or stay out late," Bouton said. "My first weekend with the Yankees, we were at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington and I get woken up at 4 a.m. by Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford and Ralph Terry to go to roof, drink beer and look into other people’s windows. I wasn’t ready for that."
Bouton told one hilarious story about Mantle and his now-famous drunken escapades.
"In my book, I said that Mickey hit a homer with a hangover and that was so horrible at the time," Bouton said. "Well, we were in Minneapolis and Mickey came to the park legally blind. Well, the Yankees couldn’t tell the truth and say that he was hung over, so they said he had a pulled rib cage. In the 11th inning, we needed a pinch hitter and someone told us to go into the clubhouse and wake up Mick."
Added Bouton, "So we woke up Mickey and got him dressed and he stumbled to the plate. He then hit the second pitch he saw 480 feet to centerfield and the guys on the bench are hysterical, because Mickey now had to run the bases. It’s one of the reasons why Mickey was the greatest player I ever saw."
Big League Chew
Although Bouton enjoyed a post-playing career as an actor, a sports broadcaster and businessman, inventing the bubble gum "Big League Chew," which still remains the No. 2 selling bubble gum in the nation, he was considered an outcast in baseball circles for many years. He was never invited to participate in the Old Timers’ Day ceremonies at Yankee Stadium, despite the success he enjoyed with the Yankees.
He remembered the last time he heard from Mantle, who he had not spoken to since "Ball Four" was published.
"In 1995, Mickey’s son, Billy, had passed away and I wrote Mickey a letter to tell him how sorry I was," Bouton said. "I told him that I hoped he was feeling well and that I hoped he was okay with ‘Ball Four.’ Ten days later, my secretary said that there was a message on my machine that I should take. It was Mickey. He said that he was okay with the book and that he wanted me to know that he was not the reason why I wasn’t invited to Old Timers’ Day. We never spoke again."
Three years later, Bouton suffered a loss of his own when his daughter, Laurie, was killed in an automobile accident.
"Losing Laurie really made me realize how important family was," Bouton said. "My son, Mike, wrote a letter that was published by the New York Times, that it was 28 years since the book was published and I had been punished enough. I didn’t realize Mike was writing that letter. It really surprised me and I guess the Yankees felt the same way and invited me back."
Bouton has appeared at Old Timers’ Days at Yankee Stadium ever since.
Bouton had several funny tales to tell, including one involving the immortal baseball sage, Yogi Berra.
"I was a rookie pitching in Tiger Stadium and Yogi was catching," Bouton said. "He waddled out to the mound and I asked him, ‘How should I pitch to Al Kaline?’ and Yogi said, ‘How the hell should I know?’ That was Yogi."
Although Berra has his legendary tales of humorous anecdotes, Bouton considers Joe Schultz, the manager of the Seattle Pilots in 1969, as the funniest man he ever knew in baseball.
"He gave the greatest pep talk," Bouton said of Schultz. "We’re in Baltimore, playing a doubleheader and it was 100 degrees. We’re losing the first game 11-0, and right before the end of the game, Schultz looked up and down the bench and said, ‘Boys, between games, we have to make a tough choice. We have to choose between ham and roast beef sandwiches.’ "
Bouton also gave a humorous look at what baseball might look like in the future, including the thought that all current teams would be merged and owned by one mega-corporation and that the future stars of tomorrow would be found in prison leagues.
"In the prison leagues, baseball terms like stealing, hit and run and leaving the yard would all have new meanings," Bouton said.
Bouton never thought the simple idea of keeping a diary of notes would lead to 30 years of fame.
"But I’m glad I did it," Bouton said.