But you've got to understand, in those days most guys who played professional baseball had, you know, a little more than a high school education. SAGAL: But did the other players get mad at you for telling tales out of the locker room, I guess?īOUTON: Well, some of the guys did.

My average salary for eight years in the major leagues was $19,000. Can you explain the impact the book had in 1970 when it came out?īOUTON: Well, there was a great deal of objection from two corners, one with the sportswriters.īOUTON: Because they didn't have the access I had and they had been sort of pushing, you know, a milk and cookies Boy Scout kind of view of players.īOUTON: Also, the owners were against the book because 'Ball Four' was the first book to tell people how difficult it was to make a living in baseball.īOUTON: Minimum salary was $7,000. SAGAL: Maybe I'm just jaded, living when I do now. And I was amazed to find out that professional baseball players drank, fooled around with girls and sometimes took drugs to help their performance. But I didn't get around to reading it until five or six years. SAGAL: So, as a baseball fan, I heard all my life that 'Ball Four' was this amazingly scandalous book that blew the lid off the sport, revealed all these secrets. Jim Bouton, welcome to WAIT WAIT.DON'T TELL ME!. His classic baseball memoir, 'Ball Four,' is now out as an e-book and as an audio book read by him. Our guest, Jim Bouton is a former All-Star pitcher for the New York Yankees and yet somehow they let him into Boston.

And now, the game where we invite on big names and ask them tiny questions.

Bouton baseball