Leonard Shecter

Leonard Shecter

• Born September 5, 1926
• Died January 19, 1974 in New York USA

Biographical Information

Leonard Shecter is probably most famous for editing Jim Bouton's book Ball Four. Bouton wrote a lot of notes and also dictated a lot into a tape recorder in keeping a diary of the 1969 season, and the two then edited the abundant material to book length. He also edited Bouton's second book I'm Glad You Didn't Take It Personally.

Shecter was a sportswriter for the New York Post in the 1960s when Bouton came up, and the two became friends when Bouton was a pitcher for the New York Yankees. Bouton had never had a problem with talking to reporters, and liked Shecter because he was not content to write the usual platitudes common to reporters of that time, and then would stand by his stories when confronted by players. Shecter wrote Roger Maris, a biography, and Once Upon the Polo Grounds, about the first two years of the New York Mets; that book was a major factor in creating the legend of the "Amazing Mets" and of one Marv Throneberry.

Further Reading

• Jim Bouton: Ball Four, Wiley Publishing Inc., New York, NY, 1990 (originally published in 1970). ISBN 0-02-030665-2
• Jim Bouton: I'm Glad You Didn't Take It Personally, William Morrow & Company, New York, NY, 1971.
• Leonard Shecter: Roger Maris, Home Run Hero, Bartholomew House, New York, NY, 1961.
• Leonard Shecter: Once Upon a Time: the Early Years of the New York Mets, Doubleday, New York, NY, 1983 (originally published in 1970 as Once Upon the Polo Grounds: The Mets That Were) ISBN 978-0385279307