First and foremost, there’s the bit about Frank Robinson and his stirrups, which I’ve quoted many, many times over the years. When people think about Ball Four, they don’t tend to think about uniforms, but the book has a surprisingly large number of uni-related discussions. It is also one of two or three books that have had the biggest impact on me. Nearly half a century after its publication, it is almost certainly still the best and most important baseball book ever written. His hat even fell off when he pitched at the Yankees’ Old-Timer’s Day in 1998:īouton was best known as the author of Ball Four, which was published in 1970 and was essentially a diary of his 1969 season - a season he split between the Seattle Pilots and the Houston Astros (with a brief minor league demotion along the way). You can see a video sequence of his cap flying off here: As you can see in the photo above, which is from the 1964 World Series, he had a uni-related quirk: His hat often fell off as he delivered a pitch. Word came down last night that former MLB pitcher and best-selling author Jim Bouton had died at the age of 80.
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