Scope and Content Note
The papers of Jim Bouton span the years 1939-2019, with the bulk of the material dating from 1958 to 2008. The collection mostly documents Bouton’s writings, especially his book Ball Four, and includes files related to his career as a Major League Baseball pitcher, journalist, and businessman. The papers are primarily in English, with some Spanish. The collection is organized into nine series: Personal File, Correspondence, Writings, Television, Film, and Radio Career Files, Business Files, Baseball Playing Career, Scrapbooks, Closed, and Oversize.
The Personal File series primarily documents Bouton’s life outside of his career as an athlete, writer, and sportscaster. Files on Bouton’s role as a representative on the American Committee on Africa in 1968, as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1972, and supporter of Athletes for Peace in the late 1960s document his involvement in politics and social activism. Biographical sketches and a large number of clippings and articles about Bouton are also included in the series. Similar materials also feature prominently in the Scrapbooks series. A large number of photographs containing headshots and documentation of Bouton’s childhood and family also comprise a large portion of the series. Other files related to family include wife Paula Kurman’s writings and son Michael’s letter to the editor of the New York Times in 1998 regarding Bouton’s ban from the New York Yankees Old Timers Day. The series features many files related to websites maintained by Bouton, most notably www.jimbouton.com. Bouton’s service in the United States Army Reserve Corps in the early 1960s is documented in the series, as are his skills as an artist, as represented through original watercolor paintings.
The Correspondence series contains letters, telegrams, and cards from family, friends, acquaintances, and fans, mostly relating to Bouton’s baseball and writing careers. The chronological file contains many letters of encouragement and congratulations to Bouton during his baseball career. Some of the digital files in the series include draft correspondence related to business matters. The bulk of the alphabetical file contain sympathy cards and letters in response to the death of Bouton’s daughter, Laurie, in 1997. Additional files include fan mail related to Ball Four and Bouton’s Major League Baseball comeback with the Atlanta Braves in 1978. Detailed letters between Bouton and his future wife Paula Kurman from 1978 also comprise a large portion of the series. The series contains early letters from William K. Fred, a “bird dog” scout who recommended Bouton to be signed to his first baseball contract. Additional correspondence is spread throughout the collection and filed with the project or subject to which it relates.
The Writings series, the largest of the collection, contains both published and unpublished writings, research, and materials related to books, articles, editorials, and columns written by Bouton. A large portion of the series contains files related to the five editions of Ball Four, mostly focusing on the original edition published in 1970. These files include hand-written notes, correspondence, photographs, contracts, and files related to publishing and publicity. Additional materials include audio tape transcripts, heavily marked drafts by editor Leonard Shecter, extensive notes from 1968 utilized as flashbacks in the book, and a transcript of a conversation between Bouton and Shecter at the end of the 1969 season. Files also relate to potential film, musical, and theatrical adaptations of the book. Documentation of the book’s original publication can also be found in the Scrapbooks series, and files related to the Ball Four television series, including episodes written by Bouton, are located in the Television, Film, and Radio Career Files series. Files for I'm Glad You Didn't Take It Personally, the 1971 follow-up to Ball Four, feature transcripts of Leonard Shecter’s interview with Bouton regarding the public reaction to Ball Four. Files for the book Foul Ball document Bouton’s efforts in the early 2000s to save Wahconah Park, a classic ballpark in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Files detail these efforts and include information about the history and renovation of Wahconah Park. Files for the book Strike Zone, a novel written with Eliot Asinof and published in 1995, are also present in the series. Additional writings include articles, book forwards, book proposals, reviews, and movie treatments written by Bouton. The series contains a large number of Bouton’s editorials focusing on a range of sports and political topics, concentrated mostly on those he wrote as a columnist for the Record in Bergen County, New Jersey in 1980.
The Television, Film, and Radio Career Files series documents Bouton’s career as a sportscaster, commentator, writer, and actor in television, film, and radio. The bulk of the series focuses on Bouton’s work in television as a sportscaster for the New York City stations WABC-TV and WCBS-TV in the 1970s, mostly documented through daily newscast scripts and photographs. Files related to the television series Ball Four, which aired briefly on CBS in 1976, include scripts for aired and unaired episodes, drafts, and diary-like writings chronicling the show’s development and behind the scenes activities. Bouton, along with co-creators Marvin Kitman and Vic Ziegel, considered adapting these writings into a book. The series also contains files for television programs that were never produced including "Jim Bouton's Special Look at Sports," which focused on sports related human interest stories, and “Bus League,” a reality based television show that would follow the daily lives of players on a minor league baseball team. The series also documents Bouton’s appearances on a range of television shows including What’s My Line?, Studio 54 with Bob Costas, and various talk shows. Radio files include interviews, program ideas, and Bouton’s occasional employment as a Major League Baseball commentator. Documented to a lesser extent in the collection are Bouton’s film roles in The Long Goodbye and How Do You Know.
The Business Files series documents Bouton’s investments, inventions, companies, and primary sources of income mostly following his baseball and broadcasting careers. Many of the files relate to business ventures associated with the Jim Bouton Corporation, Jim Bouton Enterprises, and the “Big League” brand name, especially Big League Chew, a chewing gum developed by Bouton in collaboration with Rob Nelson in the late 1970s. The Big League Chew files include dealings with parent company Amurol, contracts, royalty information, graphics, and files related to tobacco legislation. Another company founded by Bouton that is represented in the series includes Big League Cards, which manufactured short runs of trading cards marketed towards small businesses and little league teams. Additional products developed by Bouton documented in the series include Baseball Brain, Collect-a-Books, Slam Pad, Smart Toys, and Table to Go. A large number of the files relate to the Vintage Base Ball Federation, an organization established by Bouton in 2006 dedicated to establishing a network of teams across the United States and codifying the rules and equipment of “base ball” from the 1800s. Additional documentation of this topic can be found in the Wahconah Park files associated with the book Foul Ball in the Writings series. The series also documents Bouton’s career as a motivational speaker and includes files related to speaking engagements and celebrity appearances. Most of these files detail the logistics of his appearances and include testimonial letters and publicity materials, but very few speeches.
The Baseball Playing Career series primarily documents Bouton’s career as a pitcher in Major League Baseball and on various minor league, semi-professional, and amateur baseball clubs. The series largely documents his career with the New York Yankees from 1962 to 1968 and includes memorabilia such as baseball cards, programs, schedules, and yearbooks, as well as many photographs featuring Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Elston Howard. The series also contains similar memorabilia for the Seattle Pilots, the team for which Bouton pitched while writing Ball Four, in the club’s sole Major League Baseball season. Bouton’s comeback to Major League Baseball with the Atlanta Braves is also documented within the series mostly through photographs and videos. Along with the printed matter, digital files feature radio broadcasts and videos of Bouton pitching. Additional teams that Bouton played for that are documented in the series include the Alacranes de Durango, Amarillo Gold Sox, Greensboro Yankees, Houston Astros, Portland Mavericks, and Savannah Braves. Bouton’s baseball career, especially at the semi-professional level, is also documented extensively through clippings in the Scrapbooks series. Of particular note are the files containing Bouton’s contracts ranging from 1958 to 1978, which document salary negotiations in the form of notes and correspondence.
The Scrapbooks largely consist of clippings and other printed matter that document Bouton’s life in baseball from high school to his comeback with the Atlanta Braves, in addition to other major events in his life from 1958 to 1978. The scrapbooks are identified according to their original titles, but sometimes contain materials about Bouton from the same date span unrelated to the subject title. These scrapbooks supplement many of the same materials featured throughout the collection, most notably in the Writings series, Television, Film, and Radio Career Files series, and Baseball Playing Career series.