PART 3: And Then I Died

April 7th, 1969...The day before the opener. The team is in Seattle finishing up getting settled in after a month in Arizona for Spring Training. Joe Schultz pearl of wisdom for the day, "It's back to the old salt mine, boys". I've personally heard that expression a ton of times in my life, but it's come from someone who had to do extensive manual labor in a dangerous environment. Then again that could apply to being a ballplayer on an expansions team...couldn't it ?

PART 2: "My Arm isn't Sore, It's Just a Little Stiff

Spring Training is a time where veterans work on rounding into shape (no puns intended) and young players to try to impress in hopes of making the team. That's what occurs on an established team, but not on an expansion team like the '69 Pilots. Everyone in training camp is looking to win a job. Veterans are either trying to recapture lighting in a bottle, come back from injury or finally break free from being a career minor leaguer or backup. In essence the younger players have a better chance, since they are viewed as the future of the franchise, while the vet is considered a place holder or trade bait to some contender in July or August.

In Bouton's case he falls under many categories: trying to come back from injury and hoping to be a place holder until some contender trades for him. In fact his dream of all dreams is to work his way from short reliever, to middle relief, then spot starter then to be traded to the Detroit Tigers for the pennant run and to pitch in Yankee Stadium vs his old team and shut them out. Who said the pros don't have the same type of sports oriented fantasies that we do ?

We learned that Joe Schultz (Pilots Manager) is one heck of a "wordsmith". Seems like Joe has a nutty quote of the day. "Guys in order to win we've got to touch all the bases". Geez, I wonder if the Harvard think tank was consulted on that one !

Bouton reveals the truth about coaches. At best most are useless. At worst they are rats who live to second guess every move their "charges" make. Sal "The Barber" Maglie, the famed ex-Giant is the piching coach here. He stops at no end to throw his players under the bus. One pitcher threw a 3-2 change up that flared into RF for a game winning hit. Maglie was all over him for doing that. Bouton afterwards said, "Sal didn't you get out many a hitter with a 3-2 change?" Maglie was proud enough to admit that he even got the great Musial out that way. Bouton then said, "so a 3-2 change is a good pitch then". Maglie begrudgingly admitted he was correct. The ever so sarcastic Bouton then said, "But not by Steve Barber on this day". Got to love Bouton's wit !

When a player "dies" in Spring Training he is either "released" or "sent down" to the minors. He usually packs his bags while the others are out on the field. Lou Piniella "died" in the spring of 1969. Seattle brass just didn't like his attitute. Piniella, even then was exceptionally intense individual, which rubbed the brass the wrong way. He only hit .400 in Spring training, so he got shipped off to KC (the other expansion team). Bouton's bud Steve Hovley was sent down to Vancouver (SEA's farm team).

Our hero made the cut ! And so begins the journey through the 1969 baseball season.

PART 1: They Made Me Who I Am Today

Contract negotiations in the "old days" (pre-free agency) pitted the ball player vs team, with the team holding all the cards. The Reserve Clause enabled ownership to own players and basically offer them whatever they wanted. A player's only recourse was to hold out. Bouton did his share of holding out in his years with the Yankees. One of his best buds on the team was the late Elston Howard who would tell him to "stick to his guns" and get what he deserved. Sadly he badmouthed Bouton behind his back by saying things like, "Who does Bouton think he is...How are we going to win a pennant with guys not in camp and not getting into shape". The old Reserve system pitted one player against another in scenarios just like this one. Today we see the exact opposite where the players hold the teams over the proverbial barrel. I would like to see a system that would be somewhere in between the two.

INTRODUCTION

---FALL 1968---

While the rest of the world was worrying about the escalating war in Vietnam, social unrest on the campuses and a pivotal presidential election between Tricky Dicky and HHH, Bouton is worrying about whether he can resurect his major league baseball career. For those who aren't familar with Jim Bouton, he of the hated "evil empire" NY Yankees, 1968 was a crossroads year for him. Just 5 years earlier he was the top pitcher on the top team winning just another one of their endless stream of pennants.

Then in 1965 it all came crashing down for both Bouton and his team. The NY Yankees went from the pinnacle of sports to the poorhouse...overnight. Bouton went from being a strong armed fireballer to a sore armed firestorm. Just like that it can go away. There are hundreds of pitchers in major league history who have lost it over night like Jimbo did. His story is more compelling because he is the poster boy for the crumbling Yankee dynasty, since his decline paralled the franchises. Couple that with his anti-establishment views and he is the perfect player to point the finger out. Surely the Yankee "declinesty" didn't occur because Bouton's arm went south and 18 wins turned into 4. Add those 14 wins back into the equation and the Yankees still finish 11 games behind the pennant winning Twins. The true culprit was Yankee management. For years they were able to sign as many players as they wanted, so they didn't invest in scouting or in aggressive minor league training procedures. If one guy went down, there would be 2 behind him to take his place. By 1965 the farm had dried up and the Free Agent entry draft prevented them from signing anyone and everyone. Added to the mix was the fact that father time and injuries caught up to the great Mantle, Maris and Elston Howard. For all intents and purposes Mantle, at age 33, was done...finished...caput.

I know old time Yankee fans have a tough time coming to grips with this, but their hero (Mantle) was completely finished at a point in his career where he should have still been in his prime. Injuries coupled with his reckless lifestyle led to his fast decline. Maris on the other hand played through a ton of injuries, but became the popular whipping boy for both the media and management, not to mention the fans who still resented him for 1961. In fact the local tabloid, who were fed stories by the Yankee brass, accused Maris of "jaking it". As it turned out his wrist injury did rob him of his power, but the poor guy was still treated pittifully by the Yanks, the media and NY fans.

Bouton's best line in the intro was: "I believe that as foolish as it is, Stan Musial has more influence with American kids than any geography teacher and Mickey Mantle is more admired than our scientests". Almost 40 years ago Bouton nailed it dead on: Athletes are role models, whether they like it or not.

PREFACE

The summer of 1978 was the summer before my 13th birthday. In other words this was probably the last summer where baseball meant everything and the real world had no bearing on what happened in my day to day life. Of course that is if you don't consider baseball or pennant races part of real life. For a 12 year old male, back in the dark ages of the late 1970's, baseball WAS life. Your day started with baseball and ended with baseball. It started when the newspaper was delivered, or in my case, when you delivered it. Naturally you read the paper from the back cover on in. For all those not schooled in the art of newspaper reading, the back cover is the domain of the sports section.

The first thing one would do is look for the previous night's box score or as we called it: "the holly grail of numbers". Here is where you got to see how your team and more specifically your favorite players performed the previous day. Living in NYC, specifically the borough of Brooklyn, put you at a HUGE disadvantage. The paper of choice, NY Daily News, went to bed by around 11pm. If your favorite team's games were not completed by then you would NOT get to see a box score. Instead you'd see the the worst 5 letter combination in the alphabet next to your team: night. The translation was simple: Your team played a very long game with lots of action or they were playing on the West Coast.

I know this all seems foreign today where we live in the internet dominated era. Instead of waiting for the boxscore the following morning you can see the boxscore being updated with live feeds or watch the game itself on mlb.tv. Boy times have changed.

One thing that hasn't changed is the baseball classic Ball Four by Jim Bouton, which was truly the first adult book I ever read...if you can call the exploits of a bunch of prolonged adolescents playing a kids game for a living, adult.

When I read it the first time it was an eye opener. My real life heroes became human and not just a bunch of pictures on a bubble gum card. I remember it like yesterday when Steven Shapiro ( who left us all to early just before his 40th birthday) "lent" me the book. In our working class neighborhood you didn't exactly run out and buy your own copy. Shapiro was the first to read it, and then one by one the whole gang read it. The summer of '78 was highlighted by the great Yankee / Red Sox pennant race and a bunch of pre-teen Brooklyn ethnics doing their best to "shoot beaver".

Fast forward 30 years later and I decided to re-read this classic and see how a 42 year old kid can interpret it. To add a twist to it I decided to use Action PC Baseball to replay the actual season that it chronicled (1969). I'm excited to play the role of Joe "pound them buds" Schultz and lead the rag tag Pilots on their maiden, and as it turned out their only, voyage through the AL.

I will also be using this blog to chronicle my version of the season by doing my best Bouton imitation. Fast forward to the fall of 1968...just before the expansion draft, to begin our journey.