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Jim bouton mickey mantle6/29/2023 ![]() Ball Four begins “I signed my contract today to play for the Seattle Pilots at a salary of $22,000 and it was a letdown because I didn’t have to bargain. One player hitching up his pants, saying, “I add 20 points to my average if I know how bitchin’ I look out there.”Ībove all, here was a proud man wrestling with failure. Players shouting “Ding-dong!” when a catcher took a foul ball to his protective cup. Pound that ol’ Budweiser into you and go get ‘em tomorrow.”Īnd here was a fresh side to the grand old game - fun. Here were veteran managers saying the stupidest things - “Attaway to stomp ‘em. Here were “heroic” New York Yankees prowling a hotel roof to “shoot beaver” by peeping into windows. The nonsense included stories every sportswriter was sworn not to tell. was called a Benedict Arnold for writing about Mickey Mantles heavy drinking. ![]() ![]() He also said some bad things about Mickey (Mantle) in. I’d call Shecter and say, ‘Is this interesting?’ And he’d say: ‘Are you kidding? Keep going!’” In 2001, Jim Bouton came out with the last version of his classic Ball. Jim Bouton, the irreverent Yankee who died at 80 Wednesday after a long battle with cerebral amyloid angiopathy, was a man of many layers. Every once in a while, I would transfer the notes to audio and send in my tapes. ![]() “I didn’t know the value of it,” Bouton recalled. ![]()
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