The Baseball Reliquary Presents
BALL FOUR
TURNS FORTY
Panel Discussions with Q&A, World Premiere Film
Screening, Book Signing
Saturday, September 18, 2010, 11:00 am-5:00 pm
Burbank Central Library Auditorium
110 N. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, California
The Baseball Reliquary presents “Ball
Four Turns Forty,” a special day-long
celebration of one of the great books in
American literature, Jim Bouton’s
Ball Four,
on the occasion of the 40th
anniversary of its publication.
The
event will be held on Saturday, September 18,
2010, from 11:00 am-5:00 pm, in the Burbank
Central Library Auditorium, 110 N. Glenoaks
Blvd., Burbank, California.
The
celebration, which is open to the public and
free of charge, is being held in conjunction
with the Baseball Reliquary’s current
exhibition, “Ball
Four Turns Forty,” which is on view through
October 1, 2010 at the Burbank Central Library.
Jim Bouton was an all-star pitcher for
the New York Yankees who won 41 games in 1963
and ’64, including two World Series victories
over the St. Louis Cardinals, but his greatest
impact on the game came as the author of Ball
Four, published in 1970, arguably the most
influential baseball book ever written and one
which forever changed the face of sportswriting
and our conception of what it means to be a
professional athlete.
A diary
of Bouton’s attempt to resurrect his career as a
knuckleball pitcher with the Seattle Pilots and
Houston Astros in 1969 (after a sore arm got him
sent back to the minor leagues), Ball Four
was vilified by the baseball establishment
for its candid depiction of the sex-obsessed
lives of major league players, the pernicious
conduct of ownership and management, and the
intolerance to nonconformists such as the author
himself (who was distrusted even by his
teammates for his outspoken opposition to the
Vietnam War and his strong pro-union stance in
the locker room).
Fearful that Ball Four would
damage baseball’s “image,” Commissioner Bowie
Kuhn tried to suppress it, which only ensured
its commercial success.
Although its startling revelations
overshadowed the book’s brilliance as one of the
great sociological documents of the period,
Ball Four has, in the decades since its
publication, assumed its proper place in
American literature.
It was
even anointed in 1995 by the New York Public
Library as one of its “Books of the Century” —
the only sports book so honored — along with
such classics as The Great Gatsby, Gone With
the Wind, In Cold Blood, and Catch-22.
The September 18 event will include two
panel discussions; the world premiere screening
of a documentary,
The
Seattle Pilots: Short Flight Into History;
and a book signing with Jim Bouton.
Doors to the auditorium will open at
10:30 am, and the festivities will begin at
11:00 am with introductory remarks by
Ball Four
author, Jim Bouton.
Bouton’s opening commentary will be
followed by the first of two panel discussions.
The
morning panel and Q&A will explore the
historical and cultural impact of
Ball Four
and will include Bouton, Ron Shelton
(schedule permitting), Jean Hastings Ardell, and
David Kipen.
The panel will be moderated by Los
Angeles-based sportswriter David Davis.
Ron
Shelton is a former minor league ballplayer and
one of the preeminent filmmakers of the last
twenty-plus years, with directing and writing
credits including
Bull
Durham, White Men Can’t Jump, Cobb, Tin Cup,
Play It to the Bone, Dark Blue, and
Hollywood Homicide.
Jean
Hastings Ardell is the author of
Breaking
into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime;
she is the co-chair of the annual Nine Spring
Training Conference on Baseball History &
Culture and she frequently speaks and writes
about baseball.
David Kipen is an author, former Director
of Literature at the National Endowment for the
Arts, and current proprietor of Libros
Schmibros, a lending library and used bookstore
in Boyle Heights.
Following a lunch break, Oregon-based
producers Steve Cox and Brad Powers will
introduce the world premiere screening of the
documentary,
The
Seattle Pilots: Short Flight Into History,
at 1:30 pm.
Featuring interviews with ex-players,
broadcasters, and historians, the 84-minute DVD
explores the reasons why the team left Seattle
after their one season in 1969 and why the
Pilots have attained such a cult status in the
ensuing decades.
The afternoon panel discussion and Q&A,
beginning at 3:00 pm, will focus on the Seattle
Pilots, the team immortalized by Jim Bouton in
the pages of his memoir,
Ball Four.
Moderated by David Davis, this panel will
include Bouton, Seattle baseball historian and
collector Charles Kapner (who loaned much of the
Pilots memorabilia on view in the exhibition),
Pilots first baseman-outfielder Greg Goossen
(who led the team in hitting with a .309 batting
average), and possibly other former Pilots.
The event will conclude with a book
signing by Jim Bouton from 4:00-5:00 pm. Bouton
will have copies of his books,
Ball
Four: The Final Pitch and
Foul
Ball: My Life and Hard Times Trying to Save an
Old Ballpark, available for purchase. In
addition, producers Steve Cox and Brad Powers
will have copies of the DVD,
The
Seattle Pilots: Short Flight Into History,
available for purchase.
Free parking is available in the lot next
to the library, with additional free parking in
the lot across the street from the library at
Glenoaks and Olive (entrance on Olive). Don’t
worry about the time limits posted in these
lots; the library has arranged with the City of
Burbank not to ticket any cars in the library
lots on September 18.
For further information, contact the
Baseball Reliquary by phone at (626) 791-7647 or
by e-mail at
terymar@earthlink.net; for directions, phone
the Burbank Central Library at (818) 238-5600.
“Ball
Four Turns Forty” is made possible, in part,
by a grant to the Baseball Reliquary from the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through
the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and by
the Friends of the Burbank Public Library.
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