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Exclusive Interview with Jim Bouton
Jim Bouton
Born: March 8, 1939 in Newark, N.J.
Major-league debut: with the Yankees, 4/22/62
Bouton pitched for the Yankees from 1962 through 1968. He had his best season in 1963, going 21-7 with a 2.53 ERA. He struck out 148 and walked 87 in 249.1 innings that season. Opponents batted .212 against Bouton in '63. The next year, Bouton won 18 games for the Yankees, but he never won more than four games in a season after that. Bouton pitched in the 1963 and '64 All-Star games. He also went 2-1 in three World Series starts ('63 and '64). Bouton finished his career with the Houston Astros and Seattle Pilots before retiring in 1970. Eight years later, he tried a comeback with the Braves. In 1978, he started five games for Atlanta, going 1-3 before leaving the majors for good.
Click here for articles about Ball Four, Jim Bouton and the Seattle Pilots .
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Jim Bouton was a 21-game winner for the Yankees in 1963 and a delegate for George McGovern in 1972. He's mastered ballroom dancing and starred in his own sitcom. But in the three decades since playing with the Bronx Bombers, the renegade knuckleballer still hadn't been invited to Old-Timer's Day at the Stadium. Until 1998.
At the 1998 Old-Timer's Day, Bouton stood alongside other Yankee alums and acknowledged the cheers (and jeers) from the fans. It marked the end of one of the most ridiculous baseball grudges in history; the one the Yanks had against Bouton after the publication of his pitch-and-tell baseball expose, Ball Four in 1970.
Why the detente? In June of 1998, Bouton's son Michael penned a guest column in the New York Times. He wrote of the tragedy of losing his sister Laurie in a car accident the previous year, and how Old-Timers Day holds some sort of healing power for wounded families. The column must have touched a nerve in the Bronx because Bouton was finally invited back to Yankee Stadium, 30 years after his last Yankee win, and just a year after his retirement from Momma's Pizza of the Albany Twilight League, his final, semi-pro farewell to baseball.
In the spring of 1998, Bouton sat down with Shawn Collins for a wide-ranging interview. If you know Jim Bouton, you know that baseball was only a small part of the dialogue.
Shawn Collins -- What's your take on the whole Clinton Sexgate thing?
Jim Bouton -- Well, if Clinton can run the country this well and maintain such popularity, even if he uses questionable judgement
in his private life, then maybe we should make adultery a prerequisite for the office. (Pause) I guess my point is this -
adultery doesn't really affect anybody except Bill Clinton's relationship with his wife. But the witch-hunt
affects all of us.
First of all, because it discourages other people from running for public office who have anything in their past that they
might be embarrassed about. And secondly, it establishes the precedent that the government can simply go after people.
It's sexual McCarthyism.
SC -- Do you think, as Hillary Clinton said, there is some sort of "right wing conspiracy" going on here?
JB -- Oh, I don't think it's a conspiracy where they sat down and said here's how we can get him. But they're certainly
enjoying communicating with each other. You know - (Kenneth) Starr and (Linda) Tripp and Paula Jones' attorneys, etc.
etc
SC -- Would you want to change anything about how you were raised?
JB -- No, I wouldn't change anything.
SC -- Did you follow those kinds of principles with your own kids...however you were raised?
JB -- No. I don't think I was as good a father to my kids as my father was to me, because I was traveling a lot. I would say that I was
more focused on my career -- be it either as a baseball player or a TV sportscaster -- than my father was. I had a job that took me away from my family and my dad didn't.
SC -- If you had it to do over, would you change it?
JB -- I might. Yeah, looking back on it, I wished I had spent more time with my kids. I've always had a great relationship
with my kids. I've always felt like I was a good father and I did the best I
could.
SC -- Who would you say is the most important person in your life?
JB -- This sounds like a "10 Best . . ." interview (laughs). The most important person in my life? Right now, it's my wife.
My American Legion baseball coach gave me a chance when nobody else would. My dad was always there to encourage me, when
I was a kid and I was sitting on the bench in high school. Johnny Sain, who was the pitching coach
of the Yankees, who taught me a lot about pitching and how to live your life. Leonard Schechter, the guy who edited Ball
Four, taught me a lot about writing, living.
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