BALL FOUR: JIM BOUTON'S WEIRD WORLD

Somehow now it seems so tame. The 1969 season of the Seattle Pilots and their exploits. Moe Drabowski ordering a pizza from the bullpen. But so much more worth remembering came from New York Yankee memories of one time 20 game winner, Jim Bouton.

They called it an expose or worse back then. Bowie Kuhn, who liked to hide everything--I have a memory of him sitting in a very cold stadium for the World Series. He was coatless and acting like the season and playoffs and series were the perfect length, and it really wasn't that cold in late October. Anyhow, Bowie hated the book and denied that players might have popped a "greenie" or amphetamine to mask a hangover or to get pumped up for a much too long season with much too much travel.

Even one of the more famous scenes of Yankee players staying at a Washington, D.C. hotel tiptoeing on the roof peeping into windows, seems tame for 2006. But Bouton let the air out of the heroes helium pedestal (how's that for mixing metaphors?) And , actually, that was probably pretty good. We can admire them for what they do. But it should end there. Unless their out-of- sports activities such as the Pujols Foundation or LaRussa's ARF are worthy Then we can admire them on another level.

Bouton has called his year with Seattle a "Brigadoon." The Pilots became the Brewers after only one season. No one there talks about them or remembers them fondly. If he's right, then look for Seattle to have another franchise in 2069.