Ex-Pitcher Bouton Strikes Out in Court

The Supreme Court today burst former major leaguer Jim Bouton’s hopes of winning a big-stakes contract battle over a baseball bubble gum product that resembles chewing tobacco.

Bouton, a former pitcher and best-selling author, lost an appeal to revive a $1-million damage award. The justices, without comment, let stand a ruling that threw out the award against a subsidiary of the Wrigley chewing gum company.

Bouton, whose best pitching days were in the 1960s with the New York Yankees, was with a minor league team in Portland, Ore., in 1977, when he and Coach Rob Nelson came up with the idea that led to Big League Chew, shredded bubble gum in a pouch.

The novelty was a bonanza that launched Bouton’s business career. Sales were $18 million in 1981 after Bouton and Nelson teamed up with Amurol Products Co. of Naperville, Ill., a Wrigley subsidiary, to market the bubble gum.

Bouton got into a dispute with Amurol in 1984 over an advertising campaign for the bubble gum. That led to a mailgram the company sent to Bouton agreeing to new contract terms. The mailgram became the focus of the court dispute.