Bouton
The Life of a Baseball Original
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Narrated by:
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Barry Abrams
About this listen
From the day he first stepped into the Yankee clubhouse, Jim Bouton (1939-2019) was the sports world's deceptive revolutionary. Underneath the crew cut and behind the all-American boy-next-door good looks lurked a maverick with a signature style. Whether it was his frank talk about player salaries and mistreatment by management, his passionate advocacy of progressive politics, or his efforts to convince the United States to boycott the 1968 Olympics, Bouton confronted the conservative sports world and compelled it to catch up with a rapidly changing American society.
Bouton defied tremendous odds to make the majors, won two games for the Yankees in the 1964 World Series, and staged an improbable comeback with the Braves as a 39-year-old. But it was his fateful 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and his resulting insider's account, Ball Four, that did nothing less than reintroduce America to its national pastime in a lasting, profound way.
In Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original, Mitchell Nathanson gives listeners a look at Bouton's remarkable life. Based on wide-ranging interviews Nathanson conducted with Bouton, family, friends, and others, he provides an intimate, inside account of Bouton's life.
©2020 Mitchell Nathanson (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Offering wonderful perspectives on dozens of unique (and likely never-to-be-seen-again) baseball personalities, Seasons in Hell recounts some of the most extreme characters ever to play the game and brings to life the no-holds-barred culture of major league baseball in the mid-'70s.
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If you followed MLB in the 70's or 80's !!!!
- By Eric on 03-09-16
By: Mike Shropshire
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The Last Innocents
- The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers
- By: Michael Leahy
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Legendary Dodgers Maury Wills, Sandy Koufax, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg, Dick Tracewski, and Tommy Davis encapsulated 1960s America: white and black, Jewish and Christian, wealthy and working class, pro-Vietnam and anti-war, golden boy and seasoned veteran. The Last Innocents is a thoughtful, technicolor portrait of these seven players - friends, mentors, confidants, rivals, and allies - and their storied team that offers an intriguing look at a sport and a nation in transition.
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Reliving my youth
- By PJ on 05-24-17
By: Michael Leahy
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Long Shot
- By: Mike Piazza, Lonnie Wheeler
- Narrated by: Holter Graham, Mike Piazza
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Mike Piazza was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 62nd round of the 1988 baseball draft as a "courtesy pick". The Dodgers never expected him to play for them - or anyone else. Mike had other ideas. Overcoming his detractors, he became the National League Rookie of the Year in 1993, broke the record for season batting average by a catcher, holds the record for career home runs at his position, and was selected as an All Star 12 times. Mike was groomed for baseball success by his ambitious, self-made father in Pennsylvania, a classic father-son American-dream story.
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I only thought i knew the Mike Piazza story
- By James on 03-24-13
By: Mike Piazza, and others
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Golden Days
- West's Lakers, Steph's Warriors, and the California Dreamers Who Reinvented Basketball
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Jack McCallum
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In Golden Days, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum uses these two teams - the Jerry West/Wilt Chamberlain/Elgin Baylor Lakers and the Stephen Curry/Kevin Durant/Draymond Green Warriors - to trace the dynamic history of the National Basketball Association, which for much of the last half century has marched memorably through the state of California. Tying together the two strands of McCallum's story is Hall of Famer West, the ferociously competitive Laker guard who later became one of the key architects of the Warriors.
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Very interesting and fun to read
- By Joe on 06-12-18
By: Jack McCallum
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Over Time
- My Life as a Sportswriter
- By: Frank Deford
- Narrated by: Frank Deford
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter is as unconventional and wide-ranging as Frank Deford's remarkable career, in which he has chronicled the heroes and the characters of just about every sport in nearly every medium. Deford joined Sports Illustrated in 1962, fresh, and fresh out of Princeton. In 1990, he was Editor-in-Chief of The National Sports Daily, one of the most ambitious and ill-fated projects in the history of American print journalism.
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Memories
- By Amazon Customer on 05-18-18
By: Frank Deford
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The Russian Five
- A Story of Espionage, Defection, Bribery and Courage
- By: Keith Gave
- Narrated by: Bob Brill
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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When the Detroit Red Wings were rebooting their franchise after more than two decades of relative futility, they knew the best place to find world-class players who could turn things around more quickly were conscripted servants behind the Iron Curtain. All they had to do to get them was make history by drafting them and then figure out how to get them out of the Soviet Union.
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Very interesting
- By Kandace on 04-23-21
By: Keith Gave
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From Darkness to Dynasty
- The First 40 Years of the New England Patriots
- By: Jerry Thornton
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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From Darkness to Dynasty tells the unlikely history of the New England Patriots as it has never been told before. From their humble beginnings as a team bought with rainy-day money by a man who had no idea what he was doing, to the fateful season that saw them win their first Super Bowl, Jerry Thornton shares the wild, humiliating, unbelievable, and wonderful stories that comprised the first 40 years of what would ultimately become the most dominant franchise in NFL history.
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great narration, great book
- By BenRias on 01-25-18
By: Jerry Thornton
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Curveball
- How I Discovered True Fulfillment After Chasing Fortune and Fame
- By: Barry Zito, Robert Noland
- Narrated by: Barry Zito
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2007, pitcher Barry Zito signed a seven-year, $126 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. At that time, it was the largest contract ever given to a pitcher. He was at the top of his game, in peak physical condition, and had the kind of financial security most people can only dream of. He was also miserable. And it began to show. Zito's career declined over the next few years until he hit rock bottom - watching from the bench as his team won the World Series in 2010. In Curveball, Zito shares his story with honesty and transparency.
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The Seeker
- By Gary T. on 11-14-19
By: Barry Zito, and others
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Pete Rose
- An American Dilemma
- By: Kostya Kennedy
- Narrated by: Ben Bartolone
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Pete Rose played baseball with a singular and headfirst abandon that endeared him to fans and peers, even as it riled others--a figure at once magnetic, beloved and polarizing. Rose has more base hits than anyone in history, yet he is not in the Hall of Fame. Twenty-five years ago he was banished from baseball for gambling, then ruled ineligible for Cooperstown; today, the question "Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?" has evolved into perhaps the most provocative in sports, a layered, slippery and ever-relevant moral conundrum.
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Good book, not so good production.
- By david d. on 05-01-14
By: Kostya Kennedy
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42 Faith
- The Rest of the Jackie Robinson Story
- By: Ed Henry
- Narrated by: Ed Henry
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Journalist and baseball lover Ed Henry reveals for the first time the backstory of faith that guided Jackie Robinson into not only the baseball record books but the annals of civil rights advancement as well. Through recently discovered sermons, interviews with Robinson's family and friends, and even an unpublished book by the player himself, Henry details a side of Jackie's humanity that few have taken the time to see.
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42Faith
- By Phillip L. on 04-11-17
By: Ed Henry
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Dream Team
- How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Changed the Game of Basketball Forever
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In Dream Team, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team that captivated the world, kindled the hoop dreams of countless children around the planet, and remade the NBA into a global sensation. As a senior staff writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona.
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Great insight into the great basketball team ever.
- By James O'Brien on 09-04-12
By: Jack McCallum
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Summer of '68
- The Season That Changed Baseball - and America - Forever
- By: Tim Wendel
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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From the beginning, ’68 was a season rocked by national tragedy and sweeping change. Opening Day was postponed and later played in the shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral. That summer, as the pennant races were heating up, the assassination of Robert Kennedy was later followed by rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But even as tensions boiled over and violence spilled into the streets, something remarkable was happening in major league ballparks across the country. Pitchers were dominating like never before, and with records falling and shut-outs mounting, many began hailing ’68 as “The Year of the Pitcher".
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Detroit Upsets St. Louis in 1968 World Series.
- By Matthew Tsien on 05-01-18
By: Tim Wendel
What listeners say about Bouton
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Robert
- 05-09-20
Nice bio of sports and literary hero
This well written bio covers a lot of familiar ground with the baseball years and "Ball Four" going into detail with interviews with friends and family. More interesting is the coverage of Bouton's later years not addressed in various updates to "Ball Four" particularly his struggles as his health declined. One inconsistency is the recounting of the Phil Linz harmonica incident in which Nathanson credits Bouton rather than Mantle as the instigator. Abram's read is strong for the most part aside from a few mispronounced names, and in a few spots there appears to be editing errors as Abrams stops and says "alternate" before re-reading a line. On the whole a compelling bio of an underappreciated sports and literary hero.
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- Marty Edelstein
- 06-09-20
Ball Four More
I enjoyed this very much. It held my interest and as the other reviewer indicated the harmonica story was inaccurate. It also drove me nuts to hear Phil Linz pronounced Phil Lince. Other than that, this book held my interest and I looked forward to the next time I would pick it up for the continuation. I would recommend it to those of us of a certain era who grew up with Bouton. It brought back memories for me.
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- Eric
- 02-23-23
Rabbi Kirschbaum
All I heard was Rabbi Kirschbaum from Seinfeld.
Some good 3rd party perspective from Ball Four regarding Bouton divorce (No judgement here). Tough read (redundancy) if you’ve read Ball Four. I personally did not take much away other than mentioning of the Bouton family reaction to the divorce with Bobby who I do feel horribly for.
The narrator sounds like the Rabbi from Seinfeld who reveals Elaine’s inner feels about George’s engagement.
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- Ira S. Saposnik
- 06-15-20
average to less
very avetage notbdo great nate take a skate with Kate and now too bub hear
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