07-11-2019, 09:19 AM
Jim Bouton, 80, a long-time major league baseball pitcher, perhaps best know for his controversial book "Ball Four" which exposed secrets of major league locker rooms. He then pitched for the short-lived Seattle Pilots expansion team which only lasted one season then became the Milwaukee Brewers. (Seattle got the Mariners in 1977). His career was already on the wane at the time, but the fragile nature of the book which also exposed the foibles and follies of his original team, the New York Yankees. For example he exposed how Mickey Mantle was often hung over when he showed up at the park. The controversy effectively got him banned from baseball although he did attempt a short-lived comeback about a decade later.