Reading the paper I was saddened to read of the passing of Jim Bouton.
As a teen, reading his books brought a lot into focus. The people in his books lived like we do, had the same foibles and failings and enjoyed what they did in their way. He humanized a game and class of people - actually made them more accessible and brought me closer to them. I don't think he "ruined" the game as so many people accused him of. He made it easier for me to understand a lot of things, not only about the game and it's players, but people in general.
A few years ago, The Damn Yankees had the great pleasure of meeting him. The great Mike Hart got him to come to a game to play for the Peppers! He pitched and threw his famous knuckler. Yeah - he was old and we knocked him around a bit, but he wanted to play! I was that teen again - it made me go home, find my very,very old paperback of Ball Four and re-read the book!
I was so happy to meet someone who meant so much to me as a kid. He was gracious and a pleasure to meet. Thank You Mike Hart for allowing me that opportunity!
and Thank You Jim Bouton for making me see that no one is perfect, but that, in itself, is what makes things perfect!
...and with thanks to Mike Hart I can take it to my grave that I hit a grand slam off a guy who won 20 games for the Bronx Bombers in 1963. OK, so it was almost 50 years later, and it was at Satellite Field, and the left fielder for the Peppers charged in on a line drive that sailed over his head and rolled for 50 yards. But I can leave that part out when I tell my great grandchildren in my rocker at the old folks home.
Bouton was a neighbor of mine in Berkshire County and I was fortunate to spend time with him occasionally. We would ride together when he was pitching many years ago. The last time he ever pitched was for the Peppers when I played for them. Im guessing about 7 years ago maybe. He still wanted to pitch , and was relying on a knuckleball he had developed. Definitely a very odd delivery. However, it just wasnt there anymore and he knew it. And, so, it was over that evening at Satellite Field where he and his wife Paula had driven, just to try one last time. Jim was an unusually interesting and opinionated guy. A nice man. Thoughtful and quite emotional just beneath the surface. I always marveled at his size when I was around him. He was not a big person. No way even a six footer. And, not big boned. I thought, my goodness, this guy played with Mantle, Maris, Berra, Ford, etc. and excelled for a while in a golden age of MLB. A 20 game winner, and he hit major league pitching pretty darned well. God speed Jim Bouton.
Great post, Ray. I have similar memories of reading that book as a teenager. The other pitcher/author who did much to open up the game, perhaps not as scandalously as Bouton, was Jim Brosnan, who wrote a couple of classic books while a reliever with the Reds in the late 50s, early 60s: THE LONG SEASON and PENNANT RACE.
Mike Hart definitely made his mark on this league. After a trip to San Antonio, where half the club staggered around following Tom Maney to the same dive joint every dark night (in the Jim Bouton tradition!), Mike gave me a book as a thank you for managing the team. I love that book, A DAY IN THE BLEACHERS by Arnold Hano. Mike knew the way to my heart.
Anyway!
We'll long remember Mike's post-game pink lemonades and sarsaparillas after the games . . . refreshing, certainly, but not quite hitting the spot.
-- Edited by JimmyP on Thursday 11th of July 2019 01:53:06 PM
the paper obit told what we already knew. Successful Major League Pitcher on the biggest stage, controversial but successful author.
Few know he Played two or three seasons in our league and ironically his last pitches at the god forsaken Satellite field , how far is that from the cathedrals of baseball he played in , how far from Yankee Stadium!? Maybe it was not unlike the first fields he played on as a kid in Newark.
He attempted some comebacks. He loved the game like we do. Dave Van Wormer of the 30 + Senators found him in the midst of one comeback at a Twilight game and invited him to be on his roster.
He did OK. he certainly knew what he was doing on the bump. He had location but the knuckler thrown "over the top" didn't do much. guys frankly hit him pretty hard. but he always seemed to just shake that off and pitch on.
I recall playing tournament ball with him and players lined up to have him sign old copies of his books and then a new book he had written. He handed out bags of big league chew bubble gum ( He started that company). Then he pitched against some team and lost (we played pretty poorly behind him that day ) . He went to his car and signed his book and thanked me for thinking of him. I have that copy in my hands right now.
I remember years earlier he was playing a Senators game at Siena College the day Mantle died and the local TV found him there and interviewed him. Maybe looking for some splashy comment he just said he was sad to see his teammate go. He had no beef. I guess the Yankee organization did. Till last year, but I don't think that fazed him. Cool customer , Jim Bouton.
I umped his last game. It was another comeback try after those strokes. Imagine that. It was like he had accomplished something getting there that day. However, It was obvious he was going to walk the whole team . I told the batters to swing at it if they could reach it. He pitched maybe three innings. sat down with his wife and was neither openly disappointed or triumphant on playing at all again. he was 73. He had some tragedies to endure in his life, Not just the Yankees Blow back. but like that day , always a cool customer, thank you Jim Bouton.
Ray, Tim, Jim E. & Jim P: Thanks to each of you for your kind words about Jim Bouton and me.
I echo many of your comments about Jim, including a real sadness that he's gone.
Jim pitched for the Peppers on an overcast Tuesday night, May 28, 2013 at Satellite Field against the Damn Yankees. The Yankees entered the game in first place; the Peppers in or near last. Final score: Yankees 18, Peppers 9.
Jim started on the hill and pitched 3 innings, allowing 15 runs, eight of them earned, and he didn't bat. He made three quick grabs of hard come-backers to the mound but he tripped and fell on two of them, first on his backside, then to his knees, misfiring on throws to home and then to first. Each of which made him angry. He admonished himself loudly while simultaneously slapping his glove against his thigh, hard.
Jim died at 80; he was 74 when he pitched for us. Then, he threw what had become his signature pitch, the knuckler. Pete Zamory was filling in as a catcher for us that night and he gave the signature line about Jim's efforts.
After the game, I asked him what he thought of Jim's knuckler. "Well, it floated," he said, "but it didn't knuckle."
Which meant the Yankees could tee off on it, and they did. Tim Brown's description captures well the zing of some of the Yanks hits. And the feeling of going up against a guy who once had been 21-7 for the Mantle-Berra Yankees and beat the Cardinals twice in the 1964 World Series.
We never would have gotten Jim to pitch for us without the help of one of my Peppers teammates, Jim Edelman. Jim knew Jim. They lived near each other in Western Massachusetts, and Jim E. said to me one day, "Hey saw Jim Bouton. He said he's been playing Vintage Baseball (c. 1880's rules & equipment) in Pittsfield area but he said he still had the itch to pitch a real baseball again." Jim E. said he told Jim B. that lots of guys pitch for the Peppers, so maybe I'd say it was OK.
Jim E was right. Of course. Almost anybody who's 55, upright, breathing and can fit into a pair of baseball pants, could take at least one turn on the Peppers' hill. Jim gave me Jim's phone number and the date was set.
Now, I should note that the game Jim played for us was not his first game for MSBL. Some years earlier, in the early '90s, he pitched in a number of over-30 games. Both John Reel and Jim told me about them. Jim made the experience, typically, into something funny. Often, when one of the league's big boomers would hit a home run off Jim, they'd ask him to autograph the ball. Jim would say sure, but he always noted with an asterisk on the ball: "Hit with an aluminum bat."
What I'm not sure everyone knew about that 2013 game was the courage that Jim Bouton brought to it. I'd interviewed Jim Bouton about a decade earlier for story in a newsletter I'd created, and so it didn't take long, in our second talk, for us to slide into an easy-going conversation.
When I was inviting him to be Pepper for a day, Jim told me that he was both eager and anxious about pitching for us. He didn't want me to broadcast the news that he'd had a stroke the previous August, and ended up in the hospital, unable to speak for some days. In the end, he died of dementia that no doubt the stroke signaled.
A stroke, of course, would be frightening for anyone, but particularly so for a former major league athlete, for whom moving his body easily would be a given, and someone who then made his money giving speeches and writing books.
Jim was determined to make a comeback, much as he had 30 years earlier, when a bum shoulder and the Yankees, told him he was done as a major league pitcher. Then, eight years later, in his mid-30s, Bouton came back with the knuckler and a very funny book, "Ball Four," one that, as Ray says, humanizes ballplayers, and shows they're just like all of us, except they have a special, and Bouton would say, unusual talent.
(The NY Times noted in its obituary, that in 2002, Sports Illustrated placed "Ball Four" at No. 3 on its list of the top 100 sports books of all time. And in 1995, as the New York Public Library celebrated its centennial, it included Ball Four as the only sports book among 159 titles in its exhibit 'Books of the Century.' But, notable as those honors are, the book's deep appeal, as Ray suggests, is personal. Especially to anyone who loves the game. So ballplayers really don't walk on water? They really are like the rest of us? To any kid growing up, beginning to feel the stirrings of big league hopes, the book was a lift. To anyone who now wants a good laugh, it still is. My favorite line? "Hey Goose, he had to consider the source." Once you read it, you'll know.)
Bouton recovered slowly from that 2012 stroke. To speed the process, he told me he carried two dumbbells around the house and yard, wherever he went, up to several hours a day. Then, feeling more agile, he took up vintage baseball. Then he met Jim Edelman and said, hey maybe I can pitch again?
So, Jim Bouton did. One more time. He also speared three hot shots back to the box. Which had to have been an eye-opener and heart-pounder each time. The first two, he fell. But the last one, he caught upright, almost nonchalantly, and threw the runner out.
It took a little time, but he did it.
My guess is if Jim were still here to pass on any advice to any of us, he'd likely say, "You're an old guy, still playing ball? Yeah? Well, good. Keep at it."
-Mike
P.S. Additional warm thanks to Jim Preller for his comments and fine memories of our trip to San Antonio in the early 2000s: That was fun. My former Texas teammates had asked me to bring down a team. We could have pre-season mini-tournament in April, they said. John Reel suggested that I ask Jim Preller to recruit guys and manage the club. Jim did a fine job on both ends.
I really wish that I could remember all the players Jim got (sorry, geezer memory setting in) but one of the reasons we went 4-1 on the trip was that the team included Mike Girard, Tom Maney, Mike Kane, Dick Stark and Carlos Agneta.
So, the tie to Jim Bouton here? Terrific books at the end of it. Both "Ball Four" and "A Day in the Bleachers" are among my favorites. In "A Day," the AP reporter Arnold Hano says to his wife over breakfast one fall morning, "Think I'll take in the game today." That game was the first one of the 1954 World Series. Hano, who lived in upper Manhattan, took a subway to the park, got in line, bought pretzel and a ticket, and got seats in centerfield, overlooking the spot in the eighth inning when Willie Mays would come running right toward him to make that great, game-saving (and I'd argue Series-winning) catch.
Fortunately, Hano had been taking notes on the game from the first inning on and he gives readers the fans' view as the pressure mounts to the eighth, when the game was tied 2-2, the Indians Larry Doby was on second and Vic Wertz hit a 450-foot bomb to center, that Willie outran and caught, and then threw back to second, on the fly, forcing Doby back.
There was a funny line there. Giants pitcher Don Liddle had relieved starter Sal Maglie in the eighth to pitch to Wertz. After Wertz' shot, Giants manager Leo Durocher replaced Liddle with another reliever, Marv Grissom. As Liddle walked off the field, he turned and said, "Well, I got my man."
The Giants won in the 10th on Dusty Rhodes homer. Hano tells it far better than I. Hope you all read it.
This too long note is why I've cut my entries here to one or two a year. - Mike
-- Edited by mikehart on Friday 12th of July 2019 06:02:24 PM
So sad to hear of Jims passing, I had the honor of meeting him in 1990 at Bleeker Stadium. I was working downtown and decided to pack my gear rather than fight the 5pm traffic back and forth from Colonie. As I walked into Bleaker at 5:30 for a 7pm game the only other person in the park is Jim Bouton. Hes got a shovel and a rake, and hes working up a sweat prepping the mound. I said hi (I didnt know it was baseball legend Jim Bouton) He says Im trying to dig up my fastball, Ive dug 5 feet and theres no sign of it. As my teammates showed up I was told we would face Jim Bouton tonight. After the game he stood on the steps of the locker room signing autographs for anybody and everybody that asked. On my way up the stairs I said ( Jim before you got here I was the oldest guy in the league, and nobody has asked me for an autograph) He smiled at me and said (Thats Because you dont look it) JP that was the best BB road trip ever. JE so cool you got to know him so well. MH awesome you got him to pitch in our league. TB so cool you have a rocking chair ;) RIP JB mane
-- Edited by MANE on Thursday 11th of July 2019 08:29:05 PM
if you haven't seen it, see it! The Battered Bastards of Baseball! Bouton pitched for the Portland Mavericks, a defunct minor league baseball team rejuvenated by new owner, Bing Russell (Kurt Russell's dad). Good stuff!
