{"id":703,"date":"2010-08-02T17:24:59","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T22:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=703"},"modified":"2010-08-02T17:24:59","modified_gmt":"2010-08-02T22:24:59","slug":"bill-%e2%80%9cspaceman%e2%80%9d-lee-one-out-of-this-world-ballplayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/703","title":{"rendered":"Bill \u201cSpaceman\u201d Lee: One Out of This World Ballplayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of my favorite things about baseball is the array of characters that have played the game over time.\u00a0 In a sport where refined technique is as valued as raw athleticism, there is much more opportunity for people outside of the typical \u201cjock\u201d to excel. \u00a0Anyone with an oversized pituitary gland can dunk a basketball or run and make a leaping catch, but it takes more than just physical skills to understand the mechanics of effectively swinging a bat at something moving so fast you can hardly see it.\u00a0 And while all sports require some amount of strategy, baseball is much more of a thinking man\u2019s game due to its endless situational possibilities and therefore many more intellectual athletes seem to be drawn to it as opposed to other sports.\u00a0 Finally, baseball is inherently much more of an individual game than any other team sport.\u00a0 When a batter strikes out he cannot blame his teammates and when a team completes a perfect game it is only the pitcher who gets recorded credit for the statistic.\u00a0 These nuances, along with the overly-conservative rigidity of MLB, make baseball the perfect sport for unique personas to stand out, and no character has ever shined brighter than baseball\u2019s one and only Spaceman, Bill Lee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

William Francis Lee III, born December 28, 1946, was literally bred to play baseball.\u00a0 His grandfather played in the Pacific Coast League, both his parents played ball, and his aunt threw the first perfect game in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (the same league portrayed in the movie A League of Their Own<\/em>).\u00a0 Aided by his \u201csecret power\u201d, left-handedness, and the ability to outthink hitters using a variety of pitches, Lee quickly developed into an outstanding pitcher.\u00a0 He went on to pitch for the University of Southern California, where he won a national title in 1968 and was named to the All-Tournament Team and was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 22nd<\/sup> round of the 1968 Amateur Draft.<\/p>\n

Lee became a favorite in Boston for the way he threw, but was soon beloved by fans across the country for his eccentric personality and counterculture lifestyle.\u00a0 He was fearless, and sometimes reckless, in his public commentary, and quickly became a media darling as reporters clambered over one another in the clubhouse to get their microphones in position for his latest sound bites. Rather than using the same tired sports clich\u00e9s, Bill Lee quoted astrophysicists and Chinese philosophers to describe things.\u00a0 He espoused the benefits of yoga, meditation and health food before it became trendy, and never shied away from discussing his use of psychotropic substances.\u00a0 Bill Lee is the only major professional athlete I know to have graced the cover of High Times <\/em>magazine while playing, and he once claimed that sprinkling marijuana on his pancakes made him \u201cimpervious to the bus fumes\u201d on his morning jogs to Fenway Park.\u00a0 Of course, Lee was despised as a dirty, drugged up hippy by many of baseball\u2019s staunch traditionalists for these very same reasons.<\/p>\n

The Spaceman was never scared to speak his mind, much to the chagrin of manager Don Zimmer (who Lee named the \u201cdesignated gerbil\u201d) and the Red Sox front office, both of whom he frequently criticized for decisions he did not agree with.\u00a0 His relationship with team management was tumultuous at best, and after the 1978 season the Red Sox finally cut ties with Lee, essentially giving him to the Montreal Expos in exchange for utility-nobody Stan Papi and freedom from his criticisms.\u00a0 Lee threw three seasons in Montreal, then early in the 1982 season was released and blackballed from the league for staging a one game walkout in protest to their release of his teammate and close personal friend Rodney Scott.<\/p>\n

Although his MLB career ended that year, Bill Lee never stopped playing baseball, because playing baseball is what Bill Lee loves to do.\u00a0 He played semi-pro ball in Manitoba, Canada for a short time, then in Russia and basically any other place that offered him a spot on the field.\u00a0 Today he plays in a 60-and-over league and makes an annual barnstorming trip to play in Cuba, a place where he says \u201cthey play baseball for all the right reasons\u2026because they like it.\u201d\u00a0 One of these trips was documented for the 2006 film Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey<\/em><\/a>, an excellent source for anyone wanting to learn more about the career and life of the legendary Lee or just be entertained by his unorthodox attitudes about baseball and the world we live in.<\/p>\n

Bill Lee never played for money or fame; he played, and continues playing to this day, because to him the greatest place in the world is out on a baseball field.\u00a0 As wonderfully entertaining as he is for so many other reasons, this is what fans need to remember about the Spaceman: there has never been anyone more dedicated to the game of baseball.\u00a0 In today\u2019s jaded age of labor disputes, lackadaisical prima-donna players and twelve dollar stadium beers, it\u2019s refreshing to look back at someone who was truly out there for no other reason than pure love of the game.<\/p>\n

You may have noticed this article is devoid of statistics, and that is intentional.\u00a0 Yes he is the third-winningest Red Sox leftie ever with a career 3.62 ERA and yes he won 17 games three consecutive seasons, but to the Spaceman it was never about personal statistics or accomplishments; it was about going out with your team and trying to win a game.\u00a0 He was fiercely loyal to his teammates and expected, albeit naively, that his teams\u2019 management be loyal as well.\u00a0 For this, and his outspoken attitude towards authority, he paid a large price.\u00a0 But his competitive drive and passion for the game are incomparable; he always plays every game like his life depends on it.\u00a0 And to him it does, because Bill Lee\u2019s life is<\/em> baseball.<\/p>\n

The following provide quotes from Bill Lee himself, as well as a couple of interviews, including one he did with High Times <\/em>in 2007.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.baseball-almanac.com\/quotes\/quobsl.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.gaiam.com\/quotes\/authors\/bill-lee<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/hightimes.com\/entertainment\/dan\/4246<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.baseball-almanac.com\/players\/bill_lee_interview.shtml<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite things about baseball is the array of characters that have played the game over time.\u00a0 In a sport where refined technique is as valued as raw athleticism, there is much more opportunity for people outside of the typical \u201cjock\u201d to excel. \u00a0Anyone with an oversized pituitary gland can dunk a basketball […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292,6,13,14],"tags":[649,558,650,636,71,652,651],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":713,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}