Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of Thirty-Six Attempts) was the third artist's book conceived by John Baldessari consisting of fourteen loose sheets. Twelve pages document photographically the artist's attempts to throw three orange balls in the air to form a straight line, the best of thirty-six attempts [thirty-six being the length of a roll of color photographic film]. Two additional pages for the book's title and colophon. Images memorialize the pure beauty of conceptual game playing and the sky-scape of Los Angeles.

Sometime after 1973 the publishers issued a second edition of 500 copies of this title without the artist's involvement. Those copies, signed and numbered by the publishers--not Baldessari--were printed by Arti Grafiche Bianca e Volto, as indicated on the colophon of that version of this title. Additionally a new folio case was produced for this edition which is stamped "Special Series Publisher Reserved."