Pound that Bud
A considerably younger colleague has started reading my hardback copy of Jim Bouton's "Ball Four."
I'm looking forward to hearing daily reports on parts of the baseball tell-all he especially enjoyed.
That classic chronicle of the 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots is widely regarded as one of best books about baseball.
But I'm concerned that our good-natured quoting of Pilots manager Joe Schultz will make it sound like our remote corner of the newsroom has turned into a haven for inane vulgarity.
So what would be the perfect thing to say to colleagues who don't understand that it's all a tribute to certain time and place?
Maybe we can just claim to be in spring training.
While you are mulling that, here's one of my favorite bits of Spokane sports trivia.
In that lone season of the Pilots' major league existence, the team played an exhibition game here in Spokane against the Indians. And Bouton pitched in that contest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_Four
