Bouton - Ball Four

[Tere1071]

Originally Posted by Mark17

Bouton wrote Ball Four in 1969 and it came out in 1970. It was hugely controversial, and it exposed some of the players cheating on their wives, and so on. He must've put up with a lot of abuse in 1970, especially on the road. Last year I won Jim's 1970 road jersey in a LOTG auction. I think it is so cool, thinking of Jim putting that shirt on, facing players on his, and opposing teams, and wondering what all was going on in his intelligent, creative mind. Jim took this shirt with him when he left the Houston clubhouse, gave it to a friend, and from there it went to me. Of all my gamers, this one has the best back story, and is therefore the most interesting to me.

By the way, he also wrote a book "I managed Good but Boy Did They Play Bad" too.

I've seen two other Bouton jerseys. The first one was at a show in the Los Angeles area around 1988 or 89. I remember skipping work that Friday to attend. A seller had a 1963 Yankee home jersey that belonged to Bouton. What I remembered most was the asking price of $650, and that it had a dirt stain on the middle front. Unfortunately, I had already spent half of his asking price on cards and I couldn't purchase it.

At the 1991 National Convention held in Anaheim, a slew of restored 1969 Seattle Pilots home jerseys was being sold, including Bouton's. As you probably know the Seattle Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers one week before the start of the 1970 season. The trunks of the 1969 Pilots jerseys were stripped to convert them into Brewers jerseys. Well, when the jerseys were found they were converted back to the Seattle Pilots using replicas of the front stitching. They looked almost like 1969 once again, but there were slight variations on the baseball logo that distinguished them from the true originals. I have seen three originals, including a player's jersey with the 100th Anniversary patch. The collector also had the restored version where I saw the slight differences. Next, another collector had a Batboy's home jersey and a pair of Joe Schultz's pants which he had found at an antique swap meet.

Going back to the Pilots Bouton jersey, it was the most expensive of the group (a low four-figured price). It had already sold, but the seller had it displayed in his booth for display. I have the book, which is more important to me.

Phil aka Tere1071