Jim Bouton. The Ultimate Outsider Became the Ultimate Insider

Author of Ball Four passes away at 80.

“What you say here. What you see here. Let it stay here. When you leave here.”

That phrase used to be on a sign ubiquitous in major league baseball clubhouses.

And it was smashed to bits by Jim Bouton in his book Ball Four.

Fifty years later, the book is still in print

Bouton was perhaps baseball’s ultimate outsider, until his tell-all book relating his experiences as a former New York Yankees starting pitcher turned member of the 1969 expansion Seattle Pilots made him the ultimate insider.

Was the book shocking? Perhaps for the times. But should it be?

Ball Four revealed that, golly, young men who played baseball liked to look at and chase young women. Thus meaning baseball players were like everybody else.

And maybe that’s why the book was so great. Because while perhaps we’d hope that major league baseball players would show more maturity, their eyeballing of women, described as “Beaver Shooting” in the book, was relatable to almost any male high school athlete.

He won two World Series games for the New York Yankees, including the last World Series complete game at old Yankee Stadium and the last World Series victory an opponent would have at Sportsman’s Park, and posted a 1.48 ERA in the Fall Classic. But this is the uniform Bouton will always be associated with.