We're discussing the book Ball Four by Jim Bouton.

What did you think? What moments jump out at you? Did anything surprise you? Any fun quotes you'd like to share?

I'll start off by saying I haven't finished the book yet. I just finished part 4. Part of it is because I'm a pretty slow reader, but part of it is because the book just isn't interesting me. The diary aspect of it is not engaging and Bouton himself is coming off unlikable. Like he thinks he's being a lot funnier than he actually is. He's also not a writer, which is really showing. He did this with a co-writer, and it doesn't seem like that guy did him any favors. Some of the stories are interesting, but most are not.

I just think I'd like more of a narrative story than small chunks.

I will finish the book, but I suspect it will take a while.

This book is trending to the DNF category for me. Just isn't interesting and he isn't particularly likeable.

Before the kickoff to read this book, I got the e-book and apparently it was some anniversary edition. There was a foreword by his wife (I think) and what she wrote turned me off so much that I didn't open the book again

Omg! Can you summarize?

I don't think I even read the whole foreword but essentially she described when they met and this intense connection they both felt. Her then-husband was with her at the time…

powerbelly said:

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This book is trending to the DNF category for me. Just isn't interesting and he isn't particularly likeable.

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It has been awhile since I've read Ball Four, 15+ years at least. I found the behind the scenes look at the Game at its highest level both fascinating and repulsive. Bouton at least does not picture himself as likable or maybe he was just clueless of the unfavorable image he was painting for himself.

Yikes. He says in the book that he met his wife in college, but I see now he was divorced and remarried, so that must've been his second wife.

Quote:

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In 1983, Bouton's ex-wife teamed up with Nancy Marshall, the former wife of pitcher Mike Marshall, to write a tell-all book called Home Games.

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Maybe we read the wrong book, lol.

Haha. And yes he had already written the book when he met his new wife. That was mentioned in the foreword as well.

I downloaded the audiobook, plan to listen while on vacation starting tomorrow.