Jim Bouton, former pitcher and author of Ball Four, has a new project. He’s promoting a new vintage baseball league.
The league will be called the Vintage Base Ball Federation. Here is the VBBF web site. The league will base their rules and customs from the 1880’s time period.
Bouton appeared on MLB Radio’s Stayin’ Hot with Seth and Bone to promote his new project. Take a listen to his interview here (his interview is about halfway through the broadcast).
Of course, as a fan of the Vermilion Voles, I’m no stranger to vintage baseball. For the record, the Voles are part of the Vintage Base Ball Association which has been around for quite a few years.
The new VBBF is just starting out but has lofty goals. In his interview, Bouton envisions a World Series of sorts by 2007. Though it is very young, the league has the advantage of a recognized spokesperson and (presumably) some financial resources behind it.
Bouton was describing the method of play during his interview and mentioned that they use gloves similar to garden gloves. He did say there are “purists” out there right now playing by the rules of 1850’s who use no gloves at all.
I smiled and thought of the Vermilion Voles.
Jim Bouoton, as most know, was the author of the first “tell-all” baseball book. It was called “Ball Four.” The book detailed on and off the field (mostly off) activities of the 1969 Seattle Pilots and other major league teams and players. “Well embellished,” I am sure.
A highlight of the book was the de-mystification of Mickey Mantle.
But, as someone said, “At the end of the day, Mickey Mantle is still a God and Jim Bouton is still a scrub.”
After 35 years of athletes who treat sports as “just another job,” or worse, as a joke, keep in mind that Jim Bouton and “Ball Four” began that trend. Even the title: Failure is “cute,” or “funny.” Results don’t matter, because the game is unimportant.
To those of us who think the game IS important, this is offensive.
Bouton was once quoted as saying he would not pay to see a Major League baseball game. Well, I’ll tell you “One F*****g Thing” (to quote a well-known 1980’s manager): Anyone, male of female, who would NOT PAY to see a Major League baseball game has NO place in MY life. And, in case you are wondering, YES, I am pounding on the desk.
In summary, Jim Bouton is a SMALL MAN.
Eighty five percent of the world works for a living, the other 15% are responding to DonS posts. :-) And PRINT IT.
I’m surprised nobody mentioned that last week Stan the Man was tied on the all-time home run list: the guy who did it was none other than the Big Hurt. What hat will he wear in the HOF?
I’m sorry I’m a year late. I just saw the VBBF World Series in Westfield—and was hungry for more info.
What I found instead was an ill-informed and ridiculous rant that had nothing to do with vintage ball——
—and a reason for your blog’s readers to skip future posts by DonS.
DonS has the nerve to criticize “Ball Four,” yet has provided us all with proof that he didn’t read it.
And when you criticize something without knowing anything about it—you get spanked by someone like me, who does.
One year late– it is time to pull down Don’s pants. (Which I bet happens all the time on these boards.)
He says that he is sure that Ball Four is well embellished.
FACT: All of Ball Four’s main detractors have since written their own “tell-all” books (Mantle, Ford, Kuhn, et al;)and confirm most, if not all, of the same stories.
DonS is upset that Bouton wrote a tell all. But that Mickey wrote a tell all doesn’t bother him at all (he doesn’t even mention it).
Someone said,” at the end of the day….”
I’m betting DonS made that quote up on the spot–hence no attribution.
But at the end of the day Bouton wrote the best selling sports book of all time–had two 20 win seasons, sports a World Series, and two pennant rings, and a 2-1 record in the Fall classic.
(How many rings does DonS have?)
But back to the spanking…
Saying Ball Four contributed to athlete’s treating baseball as “just another job,” was the first hint that DonS never read the book. Moreso than any revelations about Mantle, Ball Four is about how difficult it was to make a living, and what a sacrifice players made to play the sport.
DonS didn’t read that, even though about 450 pages out of 500 deal with this in the book. So how did DonS miss it?
But here comes the final nail in DonS’ coffin:
He says Bouton was qouted as saying that he’d never pay to see a game.
That isn’t a qoute. It is an actual line from Ball Four. And DonS takes it out of context.
The “not being willing to pay to see a game,” is prefaced with the explanation that with all the hundreds of thousands of games he’s played in–that he is bored when he is not “in” the game.
And I posit that even if DonS had lifetime season tickets, and given ten lifetimes, still would not approach the number of games that Bouton actually “played” in.
Duh!
So now that he has demonstrated that he has not read the book to anyone that has, DonS goes one insane step further and wants to show everyone that he doesn’t even have a grasp on the title of the book.
Failure is cute?
I didn’t even know what to think of that. I didn’t even realize what he was talking about (the title) until I read it a second time and concluded that someone was off his meds.
###############################
One last thought:
If Jim Bouton is a small man,
and has never heard of DonS–
How small is DonS?
And does having a small penis influence the way he writes?
It’s only my opinion, but yes.