The MLB expansion Seattle Pilots signed him in 1969, and while that season wasn’t his best on the field (he produced 0.5 WAR across 92 innings for Seattle before he was traded to Houston), it wound up leading to perhaps his greatest impact.After offseason discussions with sportswriter Leonard Shecter (who would later edit the book), Bouton decided to write a season-long diary of the 1969 season, and that wound up being Ball Four. But an arm injury in 1965 hurt his fastball velocity, and he wound up reinventing himself as a knuckleballer and pitching in the minors for the Seattle Angels in 1968. He found great success early on, including seasons with 4.8 and 4.1 wins above replacement by Baseball Reference in 1963 (where he went 21-7 and was named an all-star) and 1964. He was 80.īouton first signed with the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1959 after pitching at Western Michigan University, and he went on to play for them in the majors from 1962-1968. The Newark, N.J., native was in the Massachusetts home he shared with his wife Paula Kurman after weeks of hospice care. The author of the groundbreaking hardball tell-all “Ball Four” died Wednesday following a battle with a brain disease linked to dementia, according to friends of the family. As per Brian Niemietz and Larry McShane of The New York Daily News, the 80-year-old Bouton passed away Wednesday:

Bouton made a huge impact on the sports world for decades, first as a MLB pitcher, then as an author of the tell-all book Ball Four, then in further stints as a TV sportscaster in New York, and then with a short MLB comeback. Famed author, pitcher and sportscaster Jim Bouton has passed away.

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