Jim Bouton in memoriam: number of times facing a batter in a game 1963 & 1964.

Jim Bouton died July 10, 2019 at his home in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. This is not an obituary, nor a general career recap. Instead I will present Bouton's numbers in the context of a series of recent posts here on the number of times a batter and pitcher face each other in a game.

Position: Pitcher

Bats: Right  •  Throws: Right

6-0, 170lb (183cm, 77kg)

Born: March 8, 1939 (Age: 80-125 days) in Newark, NJ

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W	Awards
1962	23	NYY	AL	7	7	.500	3.99	36	16	12	3	1	2	133.0	124	63	59	9	59	1	71	0	1	2	560	95	3.76	1.376	8.4	0.6	4.0	4.8	1.20
1963	24	NYY	AL	21	7	.750	2.53	40	30	4	12	6	1	249.1	191	79	70	18	87	2	148	3	1	4	1004	140	3.31	1.115	6.9	0.6	3.1	5.3	1.70	AS,MVP-16
1964	25	NYY	AL	18	13	.581	3.02	38	37	1	11	4	0	271.1	227	100	91	32	60	4	125	6	0	5	1086	120	3.95	1.058	7.5	1.1	2.0	4.1	2.08

1963 and 1964 were Bouton's two best seasons by far. He also pitched well in the World Series against the Dodgers and Cardinals:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	Series	Rslt	Opp	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W	WPA
1963	24	NYY	AL	WS	L	LAD	0	1	.000	1.29	1	1	0	0	0	0	7.0	4	1	1	0	5	0	4	0	0	2	28	1.286	5.1	0.0	6.4	5.1	0.80	0.14
1964	25	NYY	AL	WS	L	STL	2	0	1.000	1.56	2	2	0	1	0	0	17.1	15	4	3	0	5	1	7	0	0	0	72	1.154	7.8	0.0	2.6	3.6	1.40	0.80
2 Yrs (2 Series)							2	1	.667	1.48	3	3	0	1	0	0	24.1	19	5	4	0	10	1	11	0	0	2	100	1.192	7.0	0.0	3.7	4.1	1.10	0.94

Rk	Year	Series	Date	Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	DR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	ERA	BF	Pit	Str	StL	StS	GB	FB	LD	PU	Unk	GSc	IR	IS	SB	CS	PO	AB	2B	3B	IBB	GDP	SF	ROE	aLI	WPA	RE24	Entered	Exited
1	1963	WS g3	Oct 5	NYY	@	LAD	L,0-1	GS-7	L(0-1)	99	7.0	4	1	1	5	4	0	0	1.29	28					9	6	2	0	4	64			0	0	0	23	0	0	0	1	0	0	.91	0.140	1.73	1b start tie	7b 3 out d1
2	1964	WS g3	Oct 10	NYY		STL	W,2-1	CG	W(1-0)	99	9.0	6	1	0	3	2	0	0	0.00	37					12	15	3	4	5	72			0	0	0	32	2	0	1	0	0	1	1.72	0.514	3.15	1t start tie	9t 3 out tie
3	1964	WS g6	Oct 14	NYY	@	STL	W,8-3	GS-9	W(2-0)	3	8.1	9	3	3	2	5	0	0	1.56	35					8	12	1	3	8	56			0	0	0	33	1	0	0	1	0	0	.78	0.289	1.23	1b start tie	9b 1-3 1 out a6
											24.1	19	5	4	10	11	0	0	1.48	100																			1

The Oct, 10, 1964 game was won when Mickey Mantle hit a home run leading off the bottom of the 9th inning, Mantle's first plate appearance in the game against a relief pitcher: 37 year old Cardinals "ace" Barney Schultz (14 saves).

Mantle was a prominent figure in Bouton's famous book, "Ball Four".

Times Facing Opponent in Game

1963:

I	Split	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BB	SO	SO/W	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	ROE	BAbip	tOPS+	sOPS+
	1st PA in G, as SP	30	270	238	26	55	16	2	4	0	0	28	39	1.39	.231	.313	.366	.679	87	4	1	2	1	0	5	.260	120	113
	2nd PA in G, as SP	30	262	239	14	40	7	2	3	0	0	17	40	2.35	.167	.224	.251	.475	60	7	1	3	2	0	2	.187	54	41
	3rd PA in G, as SP	28	236	213	15	45	6	4	6	0	0	19	33	1.74	.211	.278	.362	.639	77	4	1	2	1	1	4	.223	107	82
	4th+ PA in G, as SP	21	125	113	12	32	6	1	3	0	2	10	15	1.50	.283	.341	.434	.775	49	3	0	2	0	1	0	.305	151	109
	1st PA in G, as RP	10	73	63	3	12	1	1	1	0	0	10	18	1.80	.190	.301	.286	.587	18	2	0	0	0	0	0	.250	92	74
	2nd PA in G, as RP	4	28	25	3	6	0	0	1	0	0	3	2	0.67	.240	.321	.360	.681	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	.227	121	94
	3rd+ PA in G, as RP	1	10	10	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1		.100	.100	.200	.300	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.111	-5	-18

1964:

I	Split	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BB	SO	SO/W	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	ROE	BAbip	tOPS+	sOPS+
	1st PA in G, as SP	37	333	312	23	69	10	3	10	0	1	15	53	3.53	.221	.266	.369	.634	115	3	4	2	0	0	2	.237	98	87
	2nd PA in G, as SP	37	321	297	28	60	11	1	9	0	0	18	36	2.00	.202	.251	.337	.587	100	6	2	2	2	1	6	.201	84	72
	3rd PA in G, as SP	34	283	269	25	66	12	1	8	0	0	10	24	2.40	.245	.271	.387	.658	104	4	0	3	1	0	1	.244	105	85
	4th+ PA in G, as SP	24	146	127	13	32	4	1	5	0	0	17	9	0.53	.252	.340	.417	.758	53	4	0	2	0	3	1	.239	138	108
	1st PA in G, as RP	1	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3		.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		-100	-100

At his peak as a starting pitcher throwing hard and overhand Bouton had very consistent numbers the first three times through the batting order and a bump the fourth time.