The First and Best of Its Type!

The book is actually a diary of Bouton's comback season with the Seattle Pilots (they are now the Milwaukee Brewers). They were an expansion team with a few big name washed-up stars. Bouton, once a fireballer for the New York Yankees, hurt his arm and developed a knuckleball pitch to try to make it back to the bigs. Throughout the book he talks about his outings (mostly in mop-up and other non-critical moments) and you feel his frustration at not being noticed for sometimes excellent pitching.

Not having seen many Pilot games in 1969, I am not sure whether Bouton was fantasizing his greatness with the knuckleball or he actually was the second coming of Hoyt Wilhelm.

Bouton's teammates are quite lovable and memorable, reminding me a lot of the characters from the movie Major Leagues. There have been many books that came out since but this was the first of its type, and in my opinion the best!