I’ve spent the last hour or so starting to read Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, which is a non-fictional book written by a baseball player in the 70’s. It was a huge controversy when it came out because Bouton told all, and prior to the release of this book, players never told all. According to the prologue, the public thought ball players drank milk and never swore and loved their moms, and apparently the people who ran baseball thought that perception was a huge reason the sport succeeded. Thinking about it now, I can even see how that belief carried all the way into my generation. Mickey Mantle, for example, is always pictured in such a way that you think “now there’s a good guy”, rather than the truth – “now there’s a guy who pushed autograph seeking kids out of his way and drank himself into a grave”. Bouton played with the Yankees, and one of the stories I just read was about “beaver-shooting”, where players tried to catch a peek at woman’s junk – from under the stands or by peering up from the dugout or even through holes they’d drill in hotel walls. Hilarious stuff, as told by Bouton, though certainly the section about Mantle being a leader of the “beaver-shooting” crowd might put a damper on his rep.

I can see how at the time of publishing, the true story tales of what players were really like and how they were foul mouthed drunks or perverts was appealing to readers. However, given today’s state of athletes, I’m sure nothing in this book is going to shock me. Instead, I’m just totally getting off on a major league pitcher talking about trying to win a job with the team – especially one who was a two-time 20 game winner and 2-1 in the fucking world series with the New York Yankees. It’s unreal for me to read about this, being able to really imagine myself in his shoes, or feeling what it really was like to deal with managers and compete with other players who you are also trying to root for. Sure, I’ve read a lot of other baseball books, but this one is more like a guy who wrote “Dear Diary” stories and then said “ah, screw it, here, everybody read it”. It’s awesome.

So far, my favorite line is when he’s talking about pitching better when scared (I hold that trait, if I’m doing something athletic and I’m scared, I find super strength I never knew I had). He tells another player about that and before one game the guy whispers to him “If you ever want to see your baby again, you’ll win this game”. Classic.