That's right. Batgirl is starting her very own bookclub! Each month (at least during the off-season) we'll pick a baseball book and anyone who wants to join us has a few weeks to read the book. And for our very first "meeting," we shall read the baseball classic:
The Back Flap:
When Ball Four was first published in 1970, it hit the sports world like a lightning bolt. Commissioners, executives, players and sportswriters were thrown into a state of shock. Stunned. Scandalized. The controversy was front-page news.
Sportswriters called Bouton a Judas, a Benedict Arnold and a "social leper." Commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force the author to sign a statement saying that the book wasn't true. One team actually burned a copy of Ball Four in protest.And Bouton is still not invited to Oldtimers' Day at Yankee Stadium.Fans, however, loved Ball Four and serious critics called it an important document. It was also very popular among people who didn't ordinarily follow baseball, because Ball Four is not strictly a book about baseball, but one about people who happen to be baseball players. And it's hilariously funny.
For the twentieth-anniversary edition of this historic book, Bouton has written a new epilogue, detailing his career as an inventor, his battles with the Wrigley Company over bubble gum, his take on the Pete Rose controversy, and how baseball looks two decades after he changed its public image forever.
We will be discussing online beginning March 8. Enjoy!
(Batgirl gets a cut from Amazon when you buy the book after clicking on the above link.)
Posted by Batgirl at February 2, 2005 08:43 PM