Jim Bouton Passes

[Ct Yankee]

Former New York Yankee Pitcher Jim Bouton passed away at age 80 on July 10, 2019.  Besides being known as a World Series winning pitcher and losing his cap when he threw, Bouton became infamous for authoring baseball's first tell-all  book, "Ball Four", in 1970. 

In making a long story short, my parents had crossed paths with Mr. Bouton in a chance meeting at a restaurant.  Bouton eventually afforded my late mother the opportunity to write the lyrics for the theme song of his upcoming TV series by the same name as the book. (She was a high school grad that read a lot so she wrote well, Norman Mailer kept up correspondence with her.) Her amateur efforts were not the lyrics selected.  The TV series aired for two months before it was dropped.

In front of me, I have my mother's personally  addressed autographed copy of "Ball Four".  The book ends with one of the greatest lines ever set to print "You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time."

[Fansome]

Sorry to hear this. The book is great.