Former Boston Red Sox Pitcher Bill Lee Featured in “Spaceman” Movie
Resurrecting His Career in Canada
Lee rebounded with a 16-10, 3.04 season with the Expos in 1979 and was named The Sporting News National League Left-Hander of the Year. It was a nice comeback after his poor performance in the second half of the previous season. Unfortunately, he struggled in 1980. He was then shifted to a bullpen role in 1981, where he found some success in the strike-shortened year. His time with the Expos ended early in the 1982 season when he walked away from baseball after staging a one-day protest because the Expos released his good friend, Rodney Scott.
The movie “Spaceman” picks up the life of Bill Lee after his release by the Expos. Lee tried to hook on with another big league club, but no team wanted him. A 1984 article in People magazine caught up with Bill Lee in August of that year and told of his career in MLB and his recent post-MLB years. Of course, the article mentioned his claim that he had sprinkled marijuana on his pancakes during his big league career, which earned him a $250 fine from Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. This story and others like it were included in Lee’s 1984 autobiographical book, The Wrong Stuff.
One of the running themes of Lee’s post-baseball years, both in real life and as portrayed in the movie, is his feeling that he was blackballed by the baseball establishment. He told People magazine he had no regrets, “It takes guts to speak out. I’m basically an honest person. When they dump on people, I don’t let them get away with it. Economics wasn’t the underlying factor in my life; honesty was.”
Along with honesty, a pure love of baseball has permeated Bill Lee’s life. He played softball on an Indian reservation in Canada and baseball with a semipro team called the Longueil Senators. Lee is quoted as saying, “I always said I would play baseball for nothing and this proves it.” He’s played with numerous semi-pro teams over the last 30 years. He was part of the Senior League in Florida that included other retired major leaguers. He also played in Venezuela and Canada and in numerous old-timers’ games.
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