Strangest Players in MLB History
3. Bill Lee
If there was ever anybody who defied the traditions of baseball, it was left-handed pitcher Bill Lee. Nicknamed “The Spaceman” for his original personality, Lee was never afraid to speak his mind to the press. He was outspoken, outlandish, and straight-up out-of-his mind. While he was actually a good pitcher during his career, Lee was more famous for being a rebellious icon against the traditional, conservative baseball culture of the time.
From the moment Lee stepped into Fenway Park in 1969, he was a media pariah. During his tour of the stadium, he looked at the Green Monster and asked, “Do they leave it there during the games?” (source: Jim Prime of sabr.org). From then on out, sports journalists knew who to go to for colorful, original, and unfiltered content. Rain or shine, the Spaceman would be quoted in the daily sports section.
Lee was incredibly loyal to his teammates, but his controversial views and clubhouse behavior soured his relationship with management. His most notable quarrel was with his manager, Don Zimmer. In 1978, Lee and Zimmer engaged in a public feud over the manager’s use of the pitching staff. Lee eventually formed a group called “the Buffalo Heads” with a few other teammates. Their one goal was a mess with their old school manager.
As a result, management traded away Lee’s best friend Bernie Carbo, which prompted him to walk out of the clubhouse in anger. He was fined for the incident, and responded by referring to Zimmer as “the gerbil.” Zimmer delegated him to the bullpen for the rest of the season, and Lee was traded the Montreal Expos the following offseason.
His outspoken reputation followed him off the field, as well. The Spaceman openly admitted to using marijuana, famously claiming that sprinkling it on his pancakes made him “impervious to bus fumes” on his jog to Fenway. When a reporter asked him about mandatory drug testing, he boldly responded, “I’ve tried just about all of them, but I wouldn’t want to make it mandatory.”
Lee’s personal and political views fit perfectly with his radical persona. He fiercely defended the racial integration of busing programs in Boston, calling Bostonians racist for resisting. He was also a defender of Greenpeace. In 1988, he ran for president of the United States as the candidate of the Canadian-based satirical “Rhinoceros Party.”
Lee was never afraid to stick it to the man, and he always did so in a uniquely strange way. Still, he was beloved by his teammates and even became a member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2008.