Newsday’s Mark Herrmann tries to make a literary one between the author of the seminal Ball Four with Juiced and Vindicated.
I agree with his observation that both former ballplayers (actually Bouton came out with his book while he was still in the Majors) were considered ” pariah[s] among baseball people for having taken aim at baseball’s pedestals. Each was ultimately proven to have an ally in the truth.”
Herrmann himself admits that “Comparing Bouton and Canseco as authors is like comparing Greg Maddux and John Rocker as pitchers – one crafty and classical, the other crass and blunt.”
Bouton opened the door when he announced in his book that some players took uppers to battle the day-to-day nicks and dings and fatigue, but times have changed. That’s small potatoes now.
So in a sense, Bouton suffered his isolation and other indignities after Ball Four was published so that people like Canseco could have an easier time of it? What hath Bouton wrought?
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