Listen free for 30 days

  • Ball Four

  • The Final Pitch
  • Written by: Jim Bouton
  • Narrated by: Jim Bouton
  • Length: 18 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (55 ratings)

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Ball Four cover art

Ball Four

Written by: Jim Bouton
Narrated by: Jim Bouton
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $37.53

Buy Now for $37.53

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

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.

What the critics say

"A book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact it is by no means a sports book." (David Halberstam)
" Ball Four is a people book, not just a baseball book." ( The New York Times)
" Ball Four is out in a new e-book edition, available on Kindle. It also is available as an audio book, read by Bouton himself, through audible.com. The only thing better than reading Ball Four again might be listening to Bouton read it to you." (R. A. Dickey, columnist and senior writer for ESPN.com.)

More from the same

Author:

What listeners say about Ball Four

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    41
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    42
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    38
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable Story told by the Author

Jim Bouton's Ball Four broke the "fourth wall" for Baseball in the 70's. This collection of the entire series Mr. Bouton wrote is very enjoyable for Baseball fans. Mr. Bouton's honest narration, including a lot of snickering, laughing and crying adds to the story itself.

I had not read Ball Four originally but became interested after listening to October 1964. The story of Ball Four is Mr. Bouton's year with the Seattle Pilots and then the Houston Astros. His follow on tales of Ball Five are more views on Mr. Bouton's life, all of them are very enjoyable.

I am a baseball fan, but the stories he tells can be enjoyed by non-fans as well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Maybe the best sports book ever written.

The life of an old school ballplayer, forward thinking, and with unending loyalty to the game.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Glad I finally caught up with this classic

I was in danger of having my sports reading card revoked but finally got to Ball Four, the book that changed sports books, with some help from a book club and the audiobook.

Bouton himself reads the audiobook. His laughing at his own jokes gets a bit much, especially re: "beaver shooting," which hasn't aged well but apparently was still funny to him when he recorded it in 2012. Not great. But he was ahead of his time on many other things such as owner greed and forced flag/anthem patriotism. His reading of the personal trauma he and his family went through in Ball 7 is incredibly poignant and emotional.

Ball 5 and 7 make for a long read, but the added look-backs probably have more depth and perspective than the rest of the book. You kinda need to have read the whole thing to get it though. Definitely laughed out loud many times and was glad to have spent time with Jim telling his story. If you've never read it, and you're a fan of sports journalism, it's not too late!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An amazing novel just on its own

Took me a couple of months to finish reading this as it’s very long. It’s not just a good sports novel but a really good novel about what time was like in the late 1960s, even though it was controversial when the book first came out, it really showed how all your favourite athletes are just regular people and do fun and dumb things like we all do.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding Performance

This is a unbelievably good book. It's made even better by the narration of JB. It's powerful the entire time. highly recommended

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Listen

This was the book that opened the doors of the locker rooms to public scrutiny. Bouton suffered a virtual banishment for writing this book, and its really enjoyable to hear him narrate it himself. I unequivocally recommend this to even the most casual sports fan.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A funny and heartwarming listen to.

Lots of funny stories, great inside look at baseball, read by the author whose voice is endearing. This one is a treasure.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing. More than a baseball book.

This is hands down the penultimate baseball book. Funny, endearing, and full of humility, Ball Four is Jim Bouton's journey through baseball and life. I never got to see the man pitch but now I wish I did. This book will make you laugh aloud and well up with tears of joy and sadness. Jim Bouton is wonderful as the narrator, feels like your dad or oldest friend is taking you down memory lane. RIP Jim Bouton...the world is not as bright without you.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Even if you don’t love baseball, it’s a perfect book.

If you’ve never watched a baseball game you will still laugh, cry, become a Seattle Pilot and Houston Astros fan. Powerfully

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!