Page 83 - 1975 BoSox

76 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
signed on with the Yankees for a couple of months, but didn’t last through August.)
Bill has claimed that he has been blackballed from Major League Baseball ever since. e years after his departure from the majors have been nomadic, ranging from independent baseball to senior-league games both north and south of the border. Since leaving the major leagues, he won praise as an e ective, if some- what unorthodox, ambassador for the game in such places as Cuba, China, the former Soviet Union, and small-town Canada.
Lee co-authored a pair of autobiographical books with Dick Lally ( e Wrong Stu and Have Glove, Will Travel), and o ered an alternative look at a mythi- cal Red Sox history with Jim Prime in e Little Red (Sox) Book. He also teamed up with Prime to write Baseball Eccentrics. He is one of the few ballplayers to have earned feature articles in both Sports Illustrated and High Times magazines. He was the subject of a 2006 documentary by Brett Rapkin and Josh Dixon entitled Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey, which details Lee’s adventures while playing baseball in Cuba.
When Lee left Boston after 10 seasons, he had ac- cumulated 94 wins, the third most by a Red Sox left-hander, behind only Mel Parnell and Lefty Grove. He ranked 13th overall in Red Sox pitching history. Lee’s 94 Red Sox wins came against 68 losses, and the three consecutive 17-win seasons came in a ballpark often considered a graveyard for left-handed pitchers. Lee relied on curves, sliders, nesse, and guile to be e ective — rather than an overpowering fastball. He called the fastball a “bully” pitch and preferred to out-think his opponents. Red Sox teammate Dennis Eckersley once claimed that he threw “steak” while Lee threw “salad.” Lee’s overall major-league win-loss record was 119-90, with a 3.62 ERA.
Lee derived considerable pleasure from the Red Sox victory in the 2004 World Series, and even more re- sidual pleasure from the ALCS comeback over the team he hated most, the New York Yankees, the team he once termed “brownshirts” and “Nazis” and “thugs.” Lee watched the games with his wife from a bar in
Hawaii. Also present were a collection of Yankees fans that he said shriveled up with each successive New York loss,“like testicles in a cold Nova Scotia spring.” He couldn’t resist adding the spurious news that George Steinbrenner planned to move the Yankees to the Philippines where they would play under the new name “ e Manila Folders.”
Like Yogi Berra and Casey Stengel before him, many of Lee’s comments have made their way into the baseball vernacular and ensured his reputation for eccentricity. e Spaceman never really retired from the game. In his 60s he still played on a semi-regular basis, and occasionally at a high level of competition. In August of 2012, at the age of 65, he signed a one-day contract with the San Rafael Paci cs of the North American League. He threw a complete game to defeat the Maui Na Nakoa Ikaika, 9-4. at appearance by Lee established a new record for the oldest pitcher to win a professional baseball game. e old record had been set in 2010 — by Bill Lee — when he pitched 52⁄3 innings for the Brockton Rox of the Can-Am League and picked up the “W.”
In 2014 Lee and his wife, Diana, lived in Craftsbury, Vermont. e Spaceman has two sons (Michael and Andy) and two daughters (Caitlin and Anna) from previous marriages. Aside from his continuing baseball saga, Lee owned e Old Bat Company, which special- izes in maple, ash, and yellow birch bats “from old- growth forest.”
Actor Woody Harrelson owns the movie rights to the Bill Lee story and it will be interesting to see who is cast in the title role. He’ll have to be equal parts showman and athlete.
Sources
In the writing of this biography, the author drew on personal inter- views and conversations with Bill Lee, attaining additional insights as well as important background information about his personal life history. In addition, the following books were consulted:
Lee, Bill, and Richard Lally, Have Glove Will Travel (New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2007).
Lee, Bill, and Richard Lally, e Wrong Stu (New York: Viking Press, 1984).