Jim Bouton
A major league pitcher turned literary iconoclast, whose tell-all memoir lifted the clubhouse curtain and changed sports writing forever.
1939–2019 (age 80)·American baseball player·Birthday: March 8·The Silent Generation
Biography
Jim Bouton was a World Series-winning Yankee who became far more famous for wielding a pen than a baseball. After his arm gave out, he channeled his keen observational skills and irreverent humor into 'Ball Four,' a diary of his 1969 season. The book was a detonation in the staid world of professional sports, revealing the petty politics, rampant womanizing, and amphetamine use that management worked hard to conceal. Baseball's establishment branded him a traitor, but the public devoured his candid, witty prose. Blacklisted from the game for years, Bouton reinvented himself as a broadcaster, inventor of Big League Chew bubble gum, and activist. His eventual, emotional return to Yankee Stadium for an Old-Timers' Day ceremony served as a bittersweet vindication for the man who dared to tell the truth, and in doing so, created a new genre of insider sports journalism.
The Silent Generation
1928–1945
Born between the Depression and the end of WWII. Too young to fight, old enough to remember. They became the conformist middle managers of the 1950s — and the civil rights leaders who quietly dismantled Jim Crow.
Jim was born in 1939, placing them squarely in The Silent Generation. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Jim Was Born
The biggest hits of 1939
#1 Movie
Gone with the Wind
Best Picture
Gone with the Wind
Jim's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1939Born
World War II begins; The Wizard of Oz premieres
Gas: $0.19/galMin wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Over the Rainbow" — Judy GarlandBest Picture: Gone with the Wind
1944Started school
D-Day: Allied forces land at Normandy
Gas: $0.21/galHome: $3,400Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Swinging on a Star" — Bing CrosbyBest Picture: Going My Way
1952Became a teenager
Queen Elizabeth II ascends the throne
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $8,350Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Blue Tango" — Leroy AndersonBest Picture: The Greatest Show on Earth
1955Could drive
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat
Gas: $0.29/galHome: $9,550Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Rock Around the Clock" — Bill Haley & His CometsBest Picture: Marty
1957Could vote
Sputnik launches the Space Age
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $10,550Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"All Shook Up" — Elvis PresleyBest Picture: The Bridge on the River Kwai
1960Turned 21
Kennedy-Nixon debates become first televised presidential debates
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $11,900Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Theme from A Summer Place" — Percy FaithBest Picture: The Apartment
1969Turned 30
Apollo 11: humans walk on the Moon; Woodstock festival
Gas: $0.35/galHome: $15,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Sugar, Sugar" — The ArchiesBest Picture: Midnight Cowboy
1979Turned 40
Iran hostage crisis begins; Three Mile Island accident
Gas: $0.86/galHome: $37,900Min wage: $2.90/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"My Sharona" — The KnackBest Picture: Kramer vs. Kramer
1989Turned 50
Berlin Wall falls; Tiananmen Square protests
Gas: $1.00/galHome: $79,100Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: George H.W. Bush"Look Away" — ChicagoBest Picture: Driving Miss Daisy
1999Turned 60
Columbine shooting; Y2K panic builds
Gas: $1.17/galHome: $113,900Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Believe" — CherBest Picture: American Beauty
2009Turned 70
Michael Jackson dies; Bitcoin created
Gas: $2.35/galHome: $148,500Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Boom Boom Pow" — The Black Eyed PeasBest Picture: The Hurt Locker
2019Turned 80
First image of a black hole; Hong Kong protests
Gas: $2.60/galHome: $224,400Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Donald Trump"Old Town Road" — Lil Nas XBest Picture: Parasite
Key Achievements
- Authored the groundbreaking sports memoir 'Ball Four' (1970), which is listed on the New York Public Library's Books of the Century.
- Won 21 games and the 1962 World Series as a key pitcher for the New York Yankees.
- Pitched a complete game victory for the Houston Astros in a 24-inning contest in 1968, the longest night game in MLB history at the time.
- Co-created Big League Chew, a shredded bubble gum product sold in a pouch resembling chewing tobacco, which became a cultural phenomenon.
Did You Know?
He made a brief comeback to Major League Baseball in 1978 with the Atlanta Braves after being out of the majors since 1970.
He played the role of Terry Lennox in Robert Altman's film adaptation of 'The Long Goodbye' (1973).
He was a successful local news sports anchor in New York City for WCBS-TV.
He was an advocate for the preservation of a historic baseball field in his hometown of Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
“You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.”
