Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey

It is easy to see why I have a fascination with a guy like Bill Lee. Bill Lee hated the Yankees and held a career 12-5 record against them. He was smart, educated, and well spoken, and the guy could flat out pitch. As a lefthander he had three straight seasons of 17 wins. For a lefty in Fenway, that's pretty damn good.

Lee's popularity was because of his personality, which gave him the nickname Spaceman. The USC graduate was an intelligent, articulate, humorous voice, and his outspoken manner meant his views were frequently recorded in the press. He spoke in defense of Maoist China (once visiting, only to lampoon it endlessly), population control, Greenpeace, school busing in Boston and anything else that happened to cross his mind. He berated an umpire for a controversial call in the 1975 World Series, threatening to bite off his ear and encouraging the American people to write letters demanding the game be replayed. He ate health food and practiced yoga. He claimed his marijuana use made him impervious to bus fumes while jogging to work at Fenway Park. He sang Warren Zevon songs at times, and in an act of mutual admiration, Zevon recorded a song entitled "Bill Lee" on his album Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School. In a college town like Boston, his views were shared by many youth, and they quickly became Lee's biggest fans.

[Later] After being unable to sign on with another major league team after his release by the Expos (he alleges he was blackballed and his failed attempt to get a job with the San Diego Padres where his friend and former manager Dick Williams was managing seems to support this), Lee continued to play for a number of semi-pro and exhibition teams, including playing for and managing in the short-lived Senior League in Florida, largely comprised of retired major leaguers. In 1988, he ran for President on the absurdist Rhinoceros Party ticket, but failed to appear on the ballot in any state. His slogan for the election was "No guns. No butter. Both can kill." [Wikipedia]

Earlier this year I talked about a DVD called Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey, a documentary that relates the story of Bill Lee's professional baseball career and his years of barnstorming after he left the pros. I finally got a chance to see it this weekend and it is fantastic. I could not stop laughing. Talking to my dad (who grew up in Brookline and used to walk to Red Sox day games after school as a kid) after watching the documentary he related even more stories about "The Spaceman." Growing up in a house like mine you heard about two pitchers from the Red Sox: Luis Tiant and Bill Lee. The latter was my mother's favorite baseball player and both my mom and my dad could tell me where they were when Lee hobbled off the field carrying a left arm that would never be the same, after a fight with the Yankees.

The DVD takes you through Lee's career as well as on a trip to Cuba, where he plays several games with an adult-league team from San Diego against native Cubans. The result is hilarious. Several Warren Zevon songs play during the course of the documentary. One is Zevon's song "Bill Lee" and another, "Lawyers, Guns, and Money," is spurred on Lee's constant chatter. He is on the baseball field getting ready for a game, endlessly ranting about one thing or another and he stumbles on to part of the lyrics looks up at the camera and starts singing the song.

I was unaware of the connection between Lee and Zevon, but is more than just one song. In a Rolling Stone article about Zevon's attempts at sobriety you will find Bill Lee's name:

The reason for that final binge -- not that an alcoholic needs any special reason, Zevon will tell you -- was the visit of Montreal Expos pitcher Bill Lee, about whom Warren had written a song. Lee had liked l978's Excitable Boy, and Warren wanted to play a tape of "Bill Lee" (later included on Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School) for him. George Gruel, Zevon's live-in aide-de-camp and a warm and wonderfully understanding man, had some doubts as to trust might happen.

Zevon tells the story: "I said, 'Now look, George, we don't necessarily have to buy all this stuff that the hospital tells us. Let's just see if I can drink moderately.'

"So there was this one occasion -- especially unfortunate because I think it left a bad impression on Bill Lee -- when George said, 'Okay. You can have a drink when he gets here. Don't drink anything all day and I'll let you have a drink then.'

"A couple of days later, George said. 'You can't control the amount you drink. You didn't stop yesterday. You didn't stop today. When are you going to stop?'

"I had a bottle and a half of Wild Turkey left. I said, 'When that's gone.'

"He said: 'Enjoy it.'" [Rolling Stone]

While my Zevon collection is scant (it started this weekend), I do have "Lawyers, Guns and Money." Give me a few weeks and I'm sure I will be posting "Bill Lee" as well. Oddly, I said something along those lines back in July.

MP3: Warren Zevon - "Lawyers, Guns And Money"