"I Managed Good, But Boy Did They Play Bad" - First 1st Edition

The book is unusual in that Bouton fully acknowledges that he didn't write much of it, nor did he do the research. Reporter Neil Offen was hired by Bouton to research the material, and he and Bouton made the selections themselves. Bouton's candor in crediting Offen is much like his style of writing in Ball Four. The book is also unusual in how it lampoons the publishing industry. Bouton writes that the book existed solely because Playboy Press thought that a baseball book with Bouton's name on it would sell enough to make a tidy profit. Bouton turned the tables on the publishers when he demanded complete control of the project, and demanded the he alone would hire a researcher (and then he met Offen at Bloomingdale's while shopping for clothes--Bouton was well aware of Offen's talents, plus he knew that Offen had just recently been fired, so would work hard on the project). In creating the book, Bouton and Offen agreed that they would select stories that met their personal tastes, not