BALL FOUR: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues by Bouton, Jim - (1970)

Cleveland: World Publishing Company, (1970). First edition. One of Sports Illustrated "Top 100 Sports Books of All Time." INSCRIBED, "To Paul and Froggie - 'Smoke em inside.' Jim Bouton." Froggie was the nickname of the first wife of Paul Zimmerman, the Sports Illustrated columnist fondly known as "Dr. Z" to his many fans. With two AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED BY BOUTON laid in: the first is two pages, dated June 1968, and, among other things, mentions having to wear another player's jock strap; the second is three pages, dated August 1968, and is written from Spokane, which Bouton calls "oblivion city." According to the Sports Illustrated write-up on the book, "Though a declining knuckleballer, Bouton threw nothing but fastballs in his diary of the 1969 season. Pulling back the curtain on the seriocomic world of the big leagues, he writes honestly and hilariously about baseball's vices and virtues. At a time when the sport was still a secular religion, it was an act of heresy to portray players pounding the 'Ol' Budweiser,' 'chasin' skirts' or 'poppin' greenies.' (And that was during games.) But finally, a love story. Bouton writes, 'You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.' " Spine and cover edges fading, page edges a little spotted, offsets to endpaper from old newsclipping, otherwise about very good in like dust jacket showing light soiling and edge wear. FANTASTIC ASSOCIATION, ONE OF SPORTS ILLUSTRATED TOP 100 SPORTS BOOKS OF ALL TIME INSCIBED TO DR. Z HIMSELF