
Ball Four
The Final Pitch
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Narrated by:
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Jim Bouton
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By:
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Jim Bouton
About this listen
Ball Four: The Final Pitch is the original book plus all the updates, unlike the 20th Anniversary Edition paperback.
When Ball Four was published in 1970, it created a firestorm. Bouton was called a Judas, a Benedict Arnold and a “social leper” for having violated the “sanctity of the clubhouse.” Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying the book wasn’t true. Ballplayers, most of whom hadn’t read it, denounced the book. It was even banned by a few libraries.
Almost everyone else, however, loved Ball Four. Fans liked discovering that athletes were real people--often wildly funny people. Many readers said it gave them strength to get through a difficult period in their lives. Serious critics called it an important document.
David Halberstam, who won a Pulitzer for his reporting on Vietnam, wrote a piece in Harper’s that said of Bouton: “He has written… a book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact that it is by no means a sports book.”
In 1999 Ball Four was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the “Books of the Century.” And Time magazine chose it as one of the "100 Greatest Non-Fiction" books.
Besides changing the image of athletes, the book played a role in the economic revolution in pro sports. In 1975, Ball Four was accepted as legal evidence against the owners at the arbitration hearing, which lead to free agency in baseball and, by extension, to other sports.
Today Ball Four has taken on another role--as a time capsule of life in the 60s. "It is not just a diary of Bouton's 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros," says sportswriter Jim Caple. "It's a vibrant, funny, telling history of an era that seems even further away than four decades. To call it simply a "tell all book" is like describing The Grapes of Wrath as a book about harvesting peaches in California."
©1970, 1981, 1990 Jim Bouton (P)2012 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Just OK. Too Tangential & Distracting
- By Matthew R. on 01-21-23
By: Joe Posnanski
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The Arm
- Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Thing in Sports
- By: Jeff Passan
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Yahoo's lead baseball columnist offers an in-depth look at the most valuable commodity in sports - the pitching arm - and how its vulnerability to injury is hurting players and the game, from Little League to the majors.
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A MUST READ for every youth baseball parent and coach
- By Casey Fitzsimons on 05-29-16
By: Jeff Passan
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Charlie Hustle
- The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball
- By: Keith O'Brien
- Narrated by: Ellen Adair, Keith O'Brien
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Pete Rose is a legend. A baseball god. He compiled more hits than anyone in the history of baseball, a record he set decades ago that still stands today. He was a working-class white guy from Cincinnati who made it; less talented than tough, and rough around the edges. He was everything that America wanted and needed him to be, the American dream personified, until he wasn’t. Charlie Hustle tells the full story of one of America’s most epic tragedies—the rise and fall of Pete Rose.
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Narrator not appropriate
- By Charles C. Dean on 06-03-24
By: Keith O'Brien
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The Soul of Baseball
- A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America
- By: Joe Posnanski
- Narrated by: David Sadzin
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The Soul of Baseball is as much the story of Buck O'Neil as it is the story of baseball. Driven by a relentless optimism and his two great passions - for America's pastime and for jazz, America's music - O'Neil played solely for love. In an era when greedy, steroid-enhanced athletes have come to characterize professional ball, Posnanski offers a salve for the damaged spirit: the uplifting life lessons of a truly extraordinary man who never missed an opportunity to enjoy and love life.
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Buck O’Neil fan!!
- By scott on 04-24-20
By: Joe Posnanski
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The Bad Guys Won
- A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and the Rest of the 1986 Mets, the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform - and Maybe the Best
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Jeff Pearlman
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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It was 1986, and the New York Mets won 108 regular-season games and the World Series, capturing the hearts (and other assorted body parts) of fans everywhere. But their greatness on the field was nearly eclipsed by how bad they were off it. Led by the indomitable Keith Hernandez and the young dynamic duo of Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, along with the gallant Scum Bunch, the Amazin's left a wide trail of wreckage in their wake-hotel rooms, charter planes, a bar in Houston, and most famously Bill Buckner and the hated Boston Red Sox.
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Maybe 3.5
- By Lifeisshort on 02-15-22
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Summer of '49
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The year was 1949, and a war-wearied nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals of athletic competition. The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions—one that would be decided on the last day of the season.
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Excellent
- By RJA on 11-03-22
By: David Halberstam
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Why We Love Baseball
- A History in 50 Moments
- By: Joe Posnanski
- Narrated by: Joe Posnanski, Ellen Adair
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseball’s history, to make you fall in love with the sport all over again. Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It's Willie Mays’s catch, Babe Ruth’s called shot, and Kirk Gibson’s limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters.
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Narration
- By Peter on 01-10-24
By: Joe Posnanski
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The Boys of Summer
- The Classic Narrative of Growing Up Within Shouting Distance of Ebbets Field, Covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and What's Happened to Everybody Since
- By: Roger Kahn
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a story about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a story by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for the Herald Tribune. This is the story about what happened to the team when their glory days were behind them.
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Classic book!
- By Christopher Arthur on 11-19-17
By: Roger Kahn
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Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning
- 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City
- By: Jonathan Mahler
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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By early 1977, New York City was in the grip of hysteria caused by a murderer dubbed "Son of Sam". And on a sweltering night in July, a citywide power outage touched off an orgy of looting and arson that led to the largest mass arrest in the city's history. As the turbulent year wore on, the city became absorbed in two epic battles: the fight between Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson and team manager Billy Martin, and the battle between Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo for the city's mayoralty.
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Excellent
- By pp on 04-22-21
By: Jonathan Mahler
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The Inside Game
- Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves
- By: Keith Law
- Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In this groundbreaking book, Keith Law, the ESPN baseball writer and author of the acclaimed Smart Baseball, offers an era-spanning dissection of some of the best and worst decisions in modern baseball, explaining what motivated them, what can be learned from them, and how their legacy has shaped the game....
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Narrator is negative value compared to replacement
- By Daniel W. Franzen on 11-28-20
By: Keith Law
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Yogi
- A Life Behind the Mask
- By: Jon Pessah
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 21 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Lawrence "Yogi" Berra was never supposed to become a major league ballplayer. That's what his immigrant father told him. That's what Branch Rickey told him, too—right to Berra's face, in fact. Even the lowly St. Louis Browns of his youth said he'd never make it in the big leagues. Yet baseball was his lifeblood. It was the only thing he ever cared about. Heck, it was the only thing he ever thought about.
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"YOGI BERRA HITS A GRAND SLAM!"
- By USA VETERAN on 05-15-20
By: Jon Pessah
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Cheated
- The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing
- By: Andy Martino
- Narrated by: Andy Martino
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The ensuing scandal rivaled that of the 1919 "Black Sox" and the more recent steroid era, and became one of the most significant that the game had ever seen. The fallout ensnared many other teams, either as victims, alleged cheaters or both. The Los Angeles Dodgers felt robbed of a World Series title, and fended off accusations about their organization. Same for the New York Yankees. The Boston Red Sox were soon under investigation themselves. The New York Mets lost a promising manager before he ever managed a game.
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Take away the 2017 WS Trophy!!
- By Sonny on 07-10-21
By: Andy Martino
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Baseball
- By: Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns
- Narrated by: Ken Burns
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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The authors of the acclaimed and best-selling The Civil War, Jazz, and The War turn to another uniquely American phenomenon: baseball. Geoffrey C. Ward's and Ken Burns’s moving and fascinating history of the game goes beyond stolen bases, double plays, and home runs to demonstrate how baseball has been influenced by, and has in turn influenced, American life.
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Abridged
- By David Munoz on 02-15-16
By: Geoffrey C. Ward, and others
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Doc, Donnie, the Kid, and Billy Brawl
- How the 1985 Mets and Yankees Fought for New York’s Baseball Soul
- By: Chris Donnelly
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Never before had both the Yankees and the Mets been in contention for the playoffs so late in the same season. For months New York fans dreamed of the first Subway Series in nearly 30 years, and the Mets and the Yankees vied for their hearts. While the drama inside the Mets' clubhouse only made the team more endearing to fans, the drama inside the Yankees' clubhouse had the opposite effect. The result was the most attention-grabbing and exciting season New York would see in generations.
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Yankees
- By Kindle Customer on 09-24-20
By: Chris Donnelly
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Smart Baseball
- The Story Behind the Old Stats That Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones That Are Running It, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball
- By: Keith Law
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Predictably Irrational meets Moneyball in ESPN veteran writer and statistical analyst Keith Law's iconoclastic look at the numbers game of baseball, proving why some of the most trusted stats are surprisingly wrong, explaining what numbers actually work, and exploring what the rise of Big Data means for the future of the sport.
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If you sorta like baseball--save your money
- By david ortega on 05-11-17
By: Keith Law
What listeners say about Ball Four
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- Richie
- 04-28-15
All-time great book.
Love it, he told the hard cold truth about what actually happens in a locker room and showed how hard it was to negotiate a decent contract in the days before free agency.
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- Stephen T. Cooksey
- 04-13-17
For baseball fans of all ages!
For Baseball fans of all ages well done, well narrated and just plain fun ! Yea!
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- Anonymous User
- 09-04-19
A great story!
Read “Ball Four” when it first came out and now have heard it again and all the updates. With Jim Bouton reading his own book it truly adds to the pleasure and charm of the book!
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- Josh
- 01-12-19
Classic and meaningful
I’d always heard that Bouton’s Ball Four was the stuff of legend and it sure was - truly enjoyed the stories of baseball shenanigans and characters from yesteryear. The section on his daughter was heartbreaking. Overall, I enjoyed his narration as very authentic coming from the author himself but I really wish there had been some edits done with lots of distracting swallows and breathing that made it a choppy audiobook. Maybe I’m too picky as a narrator myself. Overall, well done.
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- Sarah Elliott
- 10-04-19
Great Story
He gets a little preachy and "back in my day" at the end, but always a classic read.
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- Dean A. Kinsworthy
- 02-09-13
Tickled
Would you consider the audio edition of Ball Four to be better than the print version?
Yes & then some .
What did you like best about this story?
Almost Everything - The Only Thing That I Did Not Enjoy Is Something That You Will Have To Listen To The Book To Understand .
What about Jim Bouton’s performance did you like?
GREAT !
He will get So Tickled at times reading/remembering that You just have to laugh along with Him .
There are other times You will feel other emotions as well.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The Part That I Did Not Enjoy
Any additional comments?
Great Book - Great Narration
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- Jeffrey
- 07-20-12
A Human Story
When the original Ball Four, circa 1970, came out, I found myself somewhat uninterested, therefore didn't read it (or listen to) till now, 40 years later. In some respects I'm glad I waited. The expanded version Ball Four is more than a story about baseball its one of the human condition. Bouton goes beyond the original tome to his life after baseball which I found just as fascinating. While I am considerably younger than him I certainly appreciate the struggles that life leaves many of us . In his case the passing of a loved one was particularly tender. The raw honesty in his story telling along with a lively sense of humor makes Ball Four an excellent work.
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- Three River
- 06-29-20
Laughter, sadness, thought provoking
This book was wonderful in so many ways - struck a nerve in me about baseball management and managing (I managed JV Baseball for 21 years in high school- never had losing season but you are only as good as your players I believe) officiating and people who want control. I believe is has lot to say about our culture good and bad in today’s world. By narrating it himself it was like I was sitting their listening to a friend telling me stories of his life. He had me laughing, crying, and amazed. I told my wife I wish I had read this before I managed then I thought no it was better now. Thank you so very much
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- Ed Champa
- 08-14-12
Wow, wonderful old memories rekindled!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes I recommend this book, especially to baseball fans. I read this book when I was young in the early 70's, and now enjoying it once again with the perspective of time made it a wonderful treat to listen to.
Any additional comments?
Normally, I don't care for an author reading their own material, but this book turns out to be the exception. Bouton does a mavelous job of narrating his own work.
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- Michael G. Patterson
- 08-13-19
Ball Four revisted
13 years old/64 years old. Close almost 50 years. Much different perspective but still an amazing thought provoking book. Bonus to hear Jim read it. RIP Bulldog
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