Jim Bouton

Biography

Nobody has more varied array of credentials than baseball legend Jim Bouton. He was a 21-game winner for the New York Yankees and the best-selling author of Ball Four and I’m Glad You Didn’t Take It Personally. He joined WCBS-TV as a broadcaster and won positive reviews for his part in the movie, The Long Good-bye. In 1978, he made a comeback to major league baseball. During his comeback Bouton invented Big League Chew, shredded bubble gum in a pouch, for ballplayers who want to look right without getting sick. Big League Chew, which has replaced chewing tobacco at many high schools and colleges, is one of the most popular bubble gums on the market. Today, he is president of his own company, Big League Cards, a frequent guest on radio and television, and an entertaining professional speaker. Funny, irreverent, and refreshing, Jim’s presentations are full of great anecdotes, imitations, information, and inspiration.

Publications

Jim Bouton's Ball Four, recently selected by the New York Public Library as one of the "Books Of The Century," is being reissued in hardcover with a new, 50-page epilogue by the author.

In Ball Four: The Final Pitch, Bouton writes about the tragic death of his daughter, his reconciliation with Mickey Mantle, his son's Father's Day letter to the New York Times, his heartwarming return to Old Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium, his views on Major League Baseball, and his life today. In addition to the new epilogue, this beautiful collector's edition includes the original text, plus Bouton's 1980 and 1990 epilogues and a new Rogues’ Gallery of 124 player photos.

Ball Four was first published in 1970 amid a storm of controversy. Bouton was called a Judas and a Benedict Arnold 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. Almost everyone else, however, loved the book and serious critics called it an important document. Besides being hilariously funny, Ball Four changed the image of athletes and played a role in the economic revolution in sports. In 1975 for example, Ball Four was accepted as legal evidence against the owners at the arbitration hearing that led to free agency in baseball and, by extension, other sports.

Titles

Keynote
He was a bench warmer in high school with the nickname "Warm Up Bouton." His guidance counselor recommended a career as a forest ranger. People are still having trouble predicting what Jim Bouton might do next. This Yankee twenty-game winner, author of Ball Four, TV Sportscaster, actor, inventor, and businessman, is also a major league speaker. His presentation is a highly entertaining combination of anecdotes, insights and inspiration, tailored to his audience. And he's very very funny.

Motivator
Bouton believes in focusing on the process as a way to achieve goals. He encourages his audience to think like athletes, to get into the fun of the enterprise, the challenge of long odds, the satisfaction in details, the thrill of extraordinary effort, the joy of work. It was his love of a challenge that led to his unprecedented comeback to the major leagues at the age of 39, after an eight year retirement. "The irony," says Bouton, "is that by focusing on the process you reach the goals more often."