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Book Reviews: Ball Four: The Final Pitch & The Way It Is

Ball Four: The Final Pitch
by Jim Bouton
p. 465
John Wiley & Sons publishers

The Way It Is
by Curt Flood
p. 208
Trident Books

Recently I had the pleasure of reading two very different baseball books written roughly 2 years apart between 1969 and 1971. They are both inside looks at baseball but from very different perspectives. The books are Jim Bouton’s Ball Four and Curt Flood’s The Way It Is (which I promised to review in the series What Every Fan Should know: The Curt Flood Case). After reading both of these books I realized that they really needed to be reviewed together.

Bouton and Flood may have had very different reasons for writing their books but both have a lot in common. Although they were contemporaries and roughly the same age, they were dealing with different issues, from different perspectives at the same time, in the sport of baseball. Both laid a lot on the line and opened up the world of the baseball player to the public eye. A lot of issues in these books still hold true today.

These books opened up the game in ways that books before them never dared. They address the sex lives of ballplayers, the lack of education, racism, drug use, and the relationships between players, coaches, managers and owners in ways that made them scandalous at the time of their publication. However it is important to note that they are very different books and each worthy of being read and considered.

Curt Flood’s book, The Way It Is, is certainly the more charged of the two, both racially and in regards to labor relations. It was written after he launched his landmark lawsuit against baseball charging the reserve clause with being unconstitutional. It is a book that is dense, angry and sometimes very hard to read. Its strength is its humanity. In the book we see Flood’s suffering, his development and what shaped him into the man he became - someone not afraid to stand up and to make a sacrifice - even a sacrifice of his career - in order to do what was right.

The book chronicles the tragedy’s of his life along with some of his greatest triumphs and it explains why he was driven to challenge baseball and for a time become one of the most hated names of the game by fans who didn’t understand what he was doing and why. It cost Flood more than he imagined, but not just because of the lawsuit.

Both he and Bouton laid bare the secrets that ownership and MLB had wanted kept under wraps - perhaps most importantly that the players were not gods, pure and larger than life. Drug use, sexual conduct, language, and even dirty laundry between players was exposed. Flood did it to shatter the myths of baseball. I would love to ask Bouton if he knew why he wrote his book - but I think it might have been because he thought it was the truth and that was worth telling.

Jim Bouton, at the time that he wrote Ball Four, was a 30-year-old pitcher who had recently focused on the knuckleball after injuring his arm in previous campaigns. It is a very humorous and revealing look inside of the game. His stories are often funny, sometimes tragic, but honest although sometimes stilted towards his point of view. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it immensely - which was not something one would easily say after reading Curt Flood’s brooding narrative.

In both books the relationship between management and the players is laid bare. No punches are pulled and both give the player’s views towards the uselessness of many coaches and managers in the game. Interestingly enough, while both players loved playing the game their attitudes towards the cerebral aspects of game management seem rather dismissive, with Bouton saying he wouldn’t watch if he wasn’t involved and Flood saying that management was essentially something anyone could do.

One of the major issues in both books was race and side by side the books produced some interesting contrasts - between the black outfielder whose book is political and motivated to show the fans why baseball should change and Bouton, who was white, who was politically aware and spent a lot of time thinking about and observing the racism that baseball had at the time.

If you are looking for a lighter book that dishes dirt on players and teams, Ball Four is the book for you as Jim Bouton shares the dirt on his former Yankee teammates including Berra, Mantle, Maris, and many more. He also talks about many of his contemporaries and some habits and reputations. It's comedic, light and a easy read. Flood’s book briefly touches on some players, but not lightly, nor in as enjoyable fashion.

Ball Four gets an extra half ball for readability, humor and enjoyment, giving it 2.5 balls - there is good reason to call this one a true baseball classic - as it provided the first true look inside the dugout and in the minds of baseball players. (There have been several editions of this book the most recent is Ball Four: The Final Pitch. An earlier edition was called Ball Four plus Ball Five.)

Flood’s The Way It Is, is darker and harder to read but has more historical value as it explains his motivations and the forces that drove him to sue Major League Baseball and challenge the reserve clause. Its a hard read and only gets 1.5 balls for the casual fan, but can be bumped a full ball plus for those who want to understand what went on in his head during the lawsuit.

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