Memories of the late Jim Bouton and the Met League

One of my biggest thrills in my lengthy sports writing career used to take place during the summer months when I worked for the North Jersey Herald & News in Passaic.

It was a tremendous sports staff, with people like Tom Guilitti, Shawn Roarke, Jim Brennan, Keith Idec, Ralph Vacchiano, Jim Carty, Sean McClelland, Mike Niebart, Tom Gatto, Ives Galarcep, Rosemarie Ross, Ken Pringle, Rick Resnick and the late Larry O’Rourke. That is clearly a superstar lineup of sports journalists over the last three decades.

I covered a variety of sports for the paper, including extensive coverage of the New Jersey Nets and New York Knicks, Seton Hall and Rutgers basketball, Rutgers football, as well as all high school sports. It was an incredible place to work and a stop in my career that definitely helped to hone my craft – as well as finding great joints to hit after work was over including Paul’s Bar and Bowling (my favorite, because there was no place like it in the world), the Fern Bar (don’t think that was the real name), Das Fleiglempouse or Das Lichtenstein (never knew the real name of that joint either) and Casey’s (I definitely got that one right).

Well, one of my regular responsibilities at the Herald & News was covering New Jersey’s premier semi-pro baseball league, the old Met League, which incredibly remained in existence for more than 40 years in Bergen and Passaic Counties.

The Met League definitely produced some of the best baseball in the area, filled with up-and-coming stars, some other standouts who were on the downside of their careers and then even others who were on the older side of old, but still managed to compete and do fairly well.

The games were played in places like Breslin Field in Lyndhurst, Nash Park in Clifton, Vander Sande Park in Saddle Brook and Veteran’s Field in Ridgewood. The games were old time baseball, played with wooden bats and nine innings long. The games were usually well pitched and definitely well played. The games were also highly competitive, which made the games extremely entertaining.

During the summer months, I covered at least four Met League games a week and wrote a weekly page devoted to the Met League, filled with features, notes, statistics, schedules, standings, you name it. I was extremely proud to have constructed that page (along with the help of colleague Gatto, who now works for the Sporting News) and it was a very well read and popular page with local baseball fans, especially the participants in the Met League.

Well, one of the regular players in that league was a guy who found success in the major leagues in two different stints. Jim Bouton, who died Wednesday at the age of 80, was an up-and-coming star with the New York Yankees in the early 1960s. He won seven games in his rookie season of 1962, then exploded in 1963, posting a 21-7  record with a 2.53 earned run average for the Yankees, earning a spot on the American League All-Star team and actually collecting votes for the AL Most Valuable Player.

A year later, 1964, Bouton won 18 games with a 3.02 ERA and won two more games in the World Series, helping the Yankees win the World Series title.

But then injuries plagued Bouton and led to his demise with the Bronx Bombers. In 1965, a forgettable year for the Yanks, Bouton won only four games, posting a dismal 4-15 record with an ERA of almost 5. Bouton would only win five more times over the next three seasons. Bouton was then sold to the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1969, a year that would eventually become a very influential one for Bouton.

While Bouton was with the Pilots, he began to write an extremely controversial book entitled “Ball Four,” which would become one of the best selling sports books of all-time. Bouton did the unthinkable, opening up the door to baseball clubhouses and off-the-field antics. He freely wrote about drug abuse in the locker rooms and massive drinking after games. He portrayed legends like the late Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Joe Pepitone and others in unflattering lights, like constantly womanizing.

Before Bouton’s book, it was always considered taboo to even talk about what went on in the locker rooms. That was like sacred ground. What happened in the locker room generally stayed in the locker room. 

But Bouton wrote about players freely taking amphetamines to battle hangovers and to stay awake during day games and drinking in the clubhouse. That was considered a no-no. Bouton was opening up a gigantic can of worms by doing so.

However, Bouton’s diary of all that happened made for very interesting reading in 1970, because the subject was never before breached. Mickey Mantle was the icon and hero to practically everyone In America in 1970. It was hard to believe that Mantle was using illegal drugs and drinking all the time. But Bouton opened up that door and wrote freely.

It turned Bouton into somewhat of a pariah in baseball circles. A lot of ballplayers shunned Bouton. The Yankees refused to let Bouton come back to Old-Timers’ Day festivities for ages. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn called the book “detrimental to baseball.” People like the late Thurman Munson bashed Bouton for writing the book. Pete Rose regularly shouted, “Fuck you, Shakespeare,” at Bouton whenever he pitched. Sportswriter Dick Young penned Bouton as a “social leper.”

However, the book was a best seller. It sold millions of copies and was reprinted several times. The New York Times listed the book as “one of the greatest sports books ever written.” Time Magazine lists “Ball Four” as one of the 100 best non-fiction books of all time.

By 1970, Bouton’s baseball career appeared to be over. He was released by the Seattle Pilots and did not receive another contract. He took a job as a local sportscaster at WCBS-TV Channel 2 in New York and gained popularity there. My first association with Bouton came in the mid 1970s, when he was regularly covering the exploits of the Dickinson High School football team, which was in the midst of a lengthy losing streak spanning years.

I also got to know him from my days working with the Jersey Indians minor league team in Roosevelt Stadium in 1977 and 1978. Bouton would come from time to time to cover the Indians, but he was also considering a comeback to baseball as a player, predominately a knuckleball pitcher. Bouton sat with me in the press box of Roosevelt Stadium on several occasions. He wanted to possibly get a chance to sign with the Indians as a free agent, but that never materialized.

However, legendary owner Bill Veeck did give Bouton a chance to come back with the White Sox in 1977, but his comeback lasted only two months.

A year later, Bouton, at age 39 and eight years removed from Major League Baseball, made a comeback with the Atlanta Braves and pitched in five games, posting a 1-3 record. It was remarkable that he was able to pitch in the big leagues once again. He ended his major league career with a record of 62-63.

Bouton then returned to Channel 2 to do sports and was also the creator of the shredded bubble gum Big League Chew.  He was also briefly an actor for a Robert Altman movie and played himself in a short-lived TV sitcom called – of course – “Ball Four.” That show lasted all of five episodes.

Bouton never gave up his love of competing in baseball, thus his association with the Met League, an organization he pitched in for a remarkable 18 seasons, well into his 50s. Bouton was mostly a knuckleball pitcher in the Met League, but he was very successful, winning almost 100 games in his Met League career.

When I started to cover the Met League regularly in the summer of 1992, I approached Bouton before one game and asked him if he would consent to an interview. I asked him if he remembered me from my days with the Jersey Indians and it was like a light bulb went off over his head.

Bouton was more than gracious to do the interview. In fact, we went out after one game for a burger and a few beers at – where else – Paul’s Bar and Bowling, which was just a knuckleball’s throw away from Nash Park.

Bouton loved the fact that I was giving so much publicity to the league.

“You know, these guys play just as hard as big leaguers and get no glory from it,” Bouton said in 1992 about the Met League players. “It’s a joy to be around all these young guys. They make me feel young. I especially like it when I strike out a young guy who is looking for the knuckleball and I slip in a fastball. It’s a lot of fun and if it wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t be doing it for as long as I have been.”

I once showed Bouton an autograph I had of his from when I was a little boy. It was given to me by my confirmation teacher in seventh grade. The autograph read, “To Donna, Best Wishes, Jim Bouton.” He then grabbed my notebook and wrote, “To Jimmy, Best Wishes, Thanks for the Chats, Jim Bouton.” He said, 

“You’re obviously not Donna.” Bouton also autographed my copy of Ball Four, an old paperback version from like 1973. He laughed at the condition of the book.

Bouton left the Met League in 1994, when he was 55 years old, and moved to Massachusetts with his new wife. Eventually, he reconciled with the Yankees and returned to Old-Timer’s Day just a few years ago. 

Bouton was truly a baseball icon and his legacy will live on with the real first tell-all book, which nowadays, wouldn’t open as many eyes, because it seems like everyone is writing a tell-all book these days. Well, those authors all have Jim Bouton to thank for it.

And I will be forever grateful to Bouton for being as gracious and kind as he was to me – and grateful to the Met League for three great summers of fun baseball with fun characters, a lot of whom became good friends.

Well, the blog about the U.S. Women’s World Cup team the other day certainly started a firestorm, one that this blog rarely sees. It drew opinions on both sides, either agreeing with me or vehemently disagreeing with me. More than 400 people commented on Facebook, which is amazing. I’m glad that there were so many people who read it, considering that I don’t get paid to write it. It’s always rewarding when people read what I write. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have had been a part of my life for the last 36 years now.

However, the blog is not meant to stir up angry and nasty comments, like some of those that were fired at me over the last few days. I’m big enough to handle the criticism, but the personal stuff, either towards me or towards someone commenting or even the subject I am writing about -- is just uncalled for and unfortunately wrong.

There are ways to criticize and comment without making it personal and hateful. I appreciate those who disagreed with me and kept their opinions to the subject, without making it a personal attack. I hope that people continue to read, because that’s what the blog is all about.

One last thing: After writing that blog, I don’t know how the comments became political. Believe me, it was not the intent. And for those who don’t know better, I am a dyed-in-the-wool proud Democrat and will be until I die. Anyone who thinks I wrote that blog in support of No. 45 who occupies the White House right now is delusional. Just because I didn’t like the behavior of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team does not mean I am a supporter of one Donald J. Trump. That’s the furthest from the truth. I just happen to – I guess – agree with him on this topic. But it was not at all intended to be political. Ok, end of subject.

I’d now much rather be writing about the Mets, who if they trade Noah Syndergaard, I’ll be really ticked off. I also want to offer Zach Wheeler an extension instead of trading him for a low level prospect that will never pan out. I want Wheeler to grow old with Jacob DeGrom, Thor and Steven Matz. I still hold on to the hope that the four of them will be a dominant pitching staff someday. Yeah, I know. Maybe I’m the one who is delusional.

You can read more of my stuff at www.hudsonreporter.com and www.theobserver.com and follow me on Twitter @ogsmar.