A ballplayer spends a good piece of his life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.

It was rumored that Mickey Mantle himself had told the Yankees that he would never attend an Old-Timers' Game to which Bouton was invited (a charge Mantle subsequently denied especially during a lengthy answering-machine message to Bouton after Mantle's son Billy had died of cancer in 1994 - Mantle was acknowledging a condolence card Bouton had sent). They adopted a Korean orphan Kyong Jo who was renamed David at the boy's request. Retirement
Bouton retired midway through the 1970 season after the Astros sent him down to the minor leagues.

James Alan "Jim" Bouton (/ˈbaʊtn/; born March 8 1939) is a former American Major League Baseball pitcher.