I am about 1/3 of the way through the book. Jim Bouton is a really engaging character.

Ditto for me. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and looking forward to the discussion.

I spent very lazy weekend and finished it up. I'm looking forward to the discussion. :-)

This is great. I love reading baseball books and decided to order Ball Four after I saw it on your site. I just got it in the mail, so I'm a bit behind you all, but I'm looking foward to this. I hope we can all find some new baseball books too.

Here are some that I've read over the last couple of years that I've enjoyed:

Why is the Foul Pole Fair
The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told
Tales from the Royals Dugout (i'm a royals fan)

Brian

Just a question, is it possible to join up with the book club at any time? If I missed out on this first selection, can I start with the second? I would love to join sometime when I am not so innundated with school reading!

I know I'm way out of line posting this here, Batgirl, and I'm sorry... but there's something I need to say.

"Dante DiTrapano, Moss' agent, told The Associated Press that the Minnesota Vikings and the Raiders had ``come to an agreement on Randy playing for Oakland next year."

This makes me so happy.

Haplo

You are not the only one. Let Norv Turner try to deal with that royal headcase.

Back to baseball!

Win Twins!

Slackers, ;)...already read the book, and his follow up book "I'm Glad You Didn't Take it Personally"...moved on to moneyball as other people here have suggested it...i read to fast, *sighs*

I've been too busy to keep up... I've also been sidetracked by A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley, which I also recommend, even if it's about football instead of baseball (the guy is an admitted lowlife).

Dear Ms. Cristina,

Anyone may join Batgirl's bookclub at any time. Even Randy Moss.

Love,
Batgirl

Do they have bookstores in Oakland, or will he have to ferry over to Frisco?

In case Batgirl is still taking suggestions for future book club selections, these are my five favorite baseball books:

Once More Around the Park, by Roger Angell
Why Time Begins on Opening Day, by Thomas Boswell
Veeck--As In Wreck, by Bill Veeck and Ed Linn
Eight Men Out, by Eliot Asinof
Memories of Summer, by Roger Kahn

On a different game, but still relevant to any sports obsessive, is Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby (author of High Fidelity and About a Boy), a memoir of his life's obsession with Arsenal Football Club. You don't have to be at all familiar with English soccer to relate to his experiences and thoughts on what it means to be a fan and why Arsenal means so much to him. Most of us can recognize ourselves in his story. It might even be the hook to pull you into following Arsenal or English soccer, if you're not into it already. I'd say that at least a third of the reason I am an Arsenal fan today is because of Nick Hornby (the other two parts being Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry). But even before I could watch Arsenal play every week on FSW, I still liked to read this book just about every year or two.

From twins.com:

"The Twins might have to brace themselves. "The Real Deal" plans to be even more real this year."

The Real Deal...good times.

This is an aside, I am currently getting a "Dick Bremer's voice" fix, watching the Gopher men's basketball game!

Call me crazy, but I love Dick Bremer's voice.

Win Twins!

Wait a second. I thought I was Brian. Now someone else is Brian. I'm confused.

I thought the book was fantastic. It really engaged me and made many subway rides more interesting than they would have been otherwise.

Now I just want stories about the Twins like Bouton tells. Maybe Lew should write a book!

Looking forward to the discussion.

For simplicity-
NY-Brian

I finished this in about a week, which has to be a new record for me -- I'm ordinarily a slow reader. It went fast.

I'm currently biding my time with Hunter S. Thompson's "The Great Shark Hunt" until our next reading assignment comes in.

Skorch, sections of that book also qualify under the heading of Great Sportswriting. You got the Kentucky Derby, the Super Bowl, Jean-Claude Killy, Evel Knievel, yacht racing... is Ali-Forman in there? And of course Presidential politics, his favorite blood sport. Do you have a favorite section of the book?

"I told y'all I was the real deal."

J.D. Durbin cracks me up. Terry Ryan is quoted as saying Durbin has "pitchability" -- whatever that means.

"The Real Deal" has got to be one of the best nicknames ever.

Great. Now I've got that "He's got personality..." song stuck in my head except I'm singing it as "pitchability." Thanks, Funoka. I owe you one.

As for Ball Four, I thought it was great. So great, in fact, that I bucked my recent trend of reading so very slowly and, often, getting halfway through a book and putting it down to never come back. I devoured the thing in a couple of days. I may have to read it again before the discussion. Although, I admit, I'm a lousy book discusser. (is that even a word?) My comments being limited to "I liked it. It was good."

From the Daily Quickie on ESPN.com:

"Full Quickie 'MLB ST Book Club' coming in March, but I got a copy of 'Baseball Prospectus 2005' yesterday and was immersed all day."

Batgirl may want to change her slogan from "less stats, more sass" to "often imitated, never duplicated."

YankeeFan

Skorch, Frightwig: Small world. After rereading Ball Four several weeks ago, I picked up my tattered Great Shark Hunt shortly after hearing of Dr. Thompson's passing. Have been reading it a lot since. Fright's right, lots of sportswriting in there, even more if you extend the category to include motorcycles, free-style auto racing, weapons, and of course shark-hunting. The best parts of the book, however, are those dealing with Watergate and Nixon's resignation. Must confess though that the F&L in LV excerpts, stupid as they are, had me howling. Very funny indeed, if more than a little sick.

Hunter Thompson had not quite gone full gonzo by 1969, the year of Bouton's saga. But if he had, and if Bouton and Schecter had fallen under that infectious narrative spell, portions of Ball Four might read as follows:

"Detroit June 9 -- I took a Thermos full of high-test coffee and Chivas to the bullpen, and worked on my juggling in those last sane moments before the greenies kicked in. Oh s--t, I thought, here comes that vicious little jackboot O'Brien - did he happen to see me stuff my bag with baseballs?
"Bouton, how many balls did you sign out today?"
Just then, I felt the pressure against my eyeballs approach an agonizing peak of rage and clarity. Greenies! I understood at once that sneaking a BP baseball past O'Brien was like stealing raw flank steak from a hammerhead shark. I knew that my next remark would irretrievably alter the rest of the road trip, from a carefree tour of the Midwest's better hotels to a crazed, feral test of reciprocating deathgrips with the dirtiest bullpen operative in the American League..."

On the other hand, probably just as well he hadn't.

Nice, very nice, cxpat. I'm still laughing over that. It's not hard to imagine Jim Bouton appreciating HST's writing.

cxpat - Great work indeed, you got it just right. HST's death is what got me to pick up my copy of GSH again as well. It's been about 7-8 years since I've read anything from it. A lot of it was written before I was even born (1973) or had any real comprehension of the current events at the time, but when I first read it I really got what I thought was a good feel for the upheaval around the Watergate break-in.

I'm currently on his Kentucky Derby story and I'll likely bounce around the book after I finish.

Frightwig - There are a couple Muhammad Ali stories, but I think they revolved around a fight with Leon Spinks. As I said above it's been awhile since I read it, but I remember the first time through I was most impressed with the title story, "The Great Shark Hunt". I seem to remember sweating and nervously turning pages as he recounted trying to smuggle drugs through an airport security check.

cxpat, that's hilarious. I owe you one king-hell 44-gun salutr... er, that's "salute" (and I guess I don't know how to work this keyboard as well as I thought).... Btw, reading his intro to The Great Shark Hunt gives me an eerie little chill this week. It seems he had suicide in his mind for quite a long time.

Frightwig - But we know you could, if you had just a little more time. Right?

I had the same feeling when I read the author's note Monday night.

What format will the Book Club discussion take? (I've never been in a book club before -- because they've never been about baseball books before!)

Dear Mr/Ms Cake,

Well, Batgirl is not entirely sure. she is thinking, right now, of having people e-mail her discussion topics then she posts a couple a day for a week and we discuss. But Batgirl is more than open to suggestions.

Sincerely,
BG

Started the book today on the plane. Felt very smart--or at least smarter than those reading the inflight magazine. So far I like it a lot and can see why it would have caused such a stir at the time it was written. Now, being a post-Watergate cynic and saturated with tell-all books, it still holds up. I would also like to read what goes on in the Twin's locker room--as long as it isn't something about how old the lady in the Cuddyer jersey looks.

Sandee