Page 79 - 1975 BoSox

BILL LEE WAS ONE OF THOSE rare ballplayers whose o - eld persona overshadowed his signi cant on- eld
performance. In baseball parlance, Lee is known as a “ ake,” a term that includes anyone who doesn’t give pat answers to pat questions or dares to admit to reading a book without pictures. He was an original in a sport that often frowns on any show of originality. In fairness, Lee would have been an eccentric in almost any eld he chose to pursue, but in baseball he was considered positively certi able. His often outrageous statements and bizarre actions marked him as an oddity and ensured Lee a lasting reputation in the buttoned-down baseball world. ey also earned him the nickname “Spaceman,” a title he never fully embraced, arguing that his rst priority was always Mother Earth. Nevertheless, Lee’s record speaks for itself and places him in the company of some of the best pitchers in Red Sox history.
Boston being a city where blue collar and scholar coexist, a city of stark contrasts, it is not surprising that Lee would be embraced by some and derided by others. When he called the city racist for the opposi- tion to forced busing of black students to white schools, he alienated a conservative element in the city. But he won hard-core baseball fans over with his solid work ethic while on the mound.
William Francis Lee, III was born in Burbank, California, on December 28, 1946, the son of William Francis Lee, Jr. and Paula eresa (Hunt)
Lee. His baseball lineage is impeccable.
His father had played sandlot ball and later fast-pitch softball. His grandfather, William F. Lee, Sr., was a highly touted in elder in the 1900s in Los Angeles. His aunt, Annabelle Lee (“the best athlete in our family,” according to Bill himself ), was a star in the Women’s Semi-Pro
Hardball League in Chicago. She too was a southpaw, and played with the Minneapolis Millerettes, the Grand Rapids Chicks, and the Fort Wayne Daisies in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). In 1944 she pitched a perfect game for the Daisies against the Kenosha Comets.
Bill Lee’s own baseball apprenticeship took place at the University of Southern California, where he came under the tutelage of highly respected coach Rod Dedeaux. He helped the Trojans capture the 1968 College World Series. Lee graduated from USC with a BA in geography, a degree both appropriate and useful in that he became a roving ambassador for baseball throughout the world.
Immediately after graduation, Lee was selected by the Red Sox in the 22nd round of the free-agent draft ( June 7, 1968). He was assigned to Waterloo (1-1, 1.33 ERA) of the Midwest league and then to Winston- Salem (3-3, 1.72 ERA) of the Carolina league.
Lee began the 1969 season with Pitts eld, and started ten games, racking up a 6-2 mark, with a 2.06 ERA. By late June, he was brought up to the big-league club.
Lee’s debut came in a relief appearance on June 25, 1969, in the second game of a Fenway Park double- header against Cleveland. e Indians led 6-3 after three full innings. Lee pitched the fourth through the seventh innings, giving up just one run on two hits
before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the seventh. After 19 relief stints, Lee earned a start late in the season, on September 30. e Washington Senators beat him up and he su ered his third loss of the year, nishing the cam- paign 1-3, with a 4.50 ERA. e one win had come on September 20, when Lee threw 62⁄3 innings of scoreless relief.
Bill Lee
by Jim Prime
72