Bouchee peaked in his rookie 1957 season, batting .293 with 17 HR and 76 RBI and finishing a distant second to teammate Jack Sanford in the Rookie of the Year Award voting. The husky lefthanded hitter was a Brave-killer, hitting 11 of his first 41 homers against Milwaukee. “I hit Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette like I owned them,” Bouchee later recalled. “But I couldn’t touch Bob Buhl. He had that herky-jerky motion and I couldn’t hit him with a paddle.” Troubles with the law (specifically, untoward encounters with young girls) forced Bouchee to miss the first three months of the 1958 season. He posted another good year in 1959, but slumped with the lowly Cubs after a four-player deal sent him to the Windy City in May 1960. Selected by the Mets in the 1962 expansion draft, Bouchee spent one season with the new franchise, playing sparingly behind fan favorite Marv Throneberry and 38-year-old Gil Hodges. He was sent to the minors in 1963 and quit baseball soon after, frustrated by what he saw as a misguided strategy of padding the roster with over-the-hill stars rather than developing young talent.
