Outer Space

Greetings Spaceman, where do you come from, ...."California" he replies...Oh, okay,

and perhaps this makes sense concerning William Lee, commonly

known as the Spaceman.

To understand Bill Lee is to utilise the opposite side of your brain, I mean he coined the phrase, " Hey I am a lefthander, and the part of your brain that runs your left side, it's the right side of your mind, ergo I am in my right mind "...okay, you begin to get the picture.

He teased managers, he flaunted the rules, he sought out controversy, and made the most of his talent to survive and at times thrive in the a very conservative world that is major league baseball.

Bill walked to his own beat, and so I am choosing to send Bill as our baseball emmisary to outer space should we ever need to explain to an alien nation what baseball should be all about.

Lee was one of the game’s few counterculture symbols: he talked to animals, championed environmental causes, practiced yoga, ate health foods, sprinkled marijuana on his buckwheat pancakes (an indiscretion for which he was fined $250 by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn), pondered Einstein and Vonnegut, quoted from Mao, and studied Eastern philosophers and mystics. It was in this context that former Red Sox teammate John Kennedy first dubbed him "Spaceman," a nickname writers thereafter used as shorthand to describe his free spirit. At first irritated by the appellation (preferring to be known as "Earth Man"), Lee would eventually approve of the "Spaceman" moniker. "I realized that it’s the ultimate compliment," he remarked. "Everybody thinks they’re earthlings but in actuality we’re only here for a brief moment, and the cinder that we’re on is moving as Spaceship Earth, so we’re all space travelers."

Whew, that boy is out there, but I think because he was a talented lefty, always in short supply it seems, he had the latitude to spout his philosophy on life. A less talented player would have got the heave ho.

This kind of fuels the old theory in baseball. " Left Handed and Breathing ", if you were a southpaw, and had some ability to get lefties out regularly, you could get away with a lot.

Case and point is Steve Howe, who pitched for 16 seasons with the Dodgers, Yankees and a few others, who finished with a 3.03 career era, but was busted 7 times for cocaine possession.

Seven Times Busted, I mean c'mon, an average Joe walking the streets doesn't get these chances, I would say the average Joe would still be in prison.

Back to Bill Lee though, you see how discussing crazy lefthanders allows the mind to drift off...

On June 21/22, 2008, Lee, at the age of 61, pitched six-plus innings for the Alaska Goldpanners in their 10-6 win over the Southern California Running Birds in Fairbanks, Alaska. It was during the annual "Midnight Sun" ball game played at night on or about the Summer Solstice, when it never really gets dark.
Lee is also a regular member of former pro player coaches at the annual the Red Sox Fan Fantasy Camp that takes place at the Red Sox Player Development Complex and City of Palms Park the first week of February every year.
Lee currently owns a lumber company and produces baseball bats for various Major League Baseball players such as David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox. His lumber is farmed from Vermont and shipped to Fall River, Massachusetts.

Here is Bill Lee today, from his Vermont home/ spaceship.

We need more free spirited players like Bill , too bad Mark "the Bird " Fydrich flamed out so quickly, he certainly fit the profile.

Enjoy !