Jim Bouton, a former major league pitcher and a proud, liberal thinker in a sport dominated by mindless conservatives, died on Wednesday at the age of 80.
In 1970, Bouton published Ball Four, a "raunchy, shrewd, irreverent" account of his 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros, that, according to Bruce Weber of the New York Times. Alex Johnson of NBC News wrote that Bouton had "destroyed the myth of baseball as a wholesome pursuit of God-fearing, milk-drinking young men".
Ball Four was called "detrimental to baseball" by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn (who tried to get Bouton to sign a statement saying the book was completely fictional), New York sports columnist Dick Young infamously trashed Bouton and Shecter as "social lepers", and Pete Rose of the Reds made his opinion known by shouting from the opposing dugout: "Fuck you, Shakespeare".