Former Major League Baseball pitcher Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee loaned his prized left arm last Thursday to the Komox Men’s Real Baseball League, pitching an inning apiece for two of the masters teams. One of the teams, appropriately, was the Expos — for whom Lee played in the latter part of his 14-year MLB career.
“I got 18 outs,” the 70-year-old Lee said of Thursday’s game, a warmup for the Sointula Old Boys tournament last weekend. “I gave up two hits, I think. Well, actually no, that ball should have been caught in left.”
The Spacemen debuted for the Boston Red Sox in 1969, and joined Montreal in 1979. Along the way, he set a Red Sox pitching record by winning 17 games in three consecutive seasons. He compiled a career record of 119 wins and 90 losses with a 3.62 ERA. He pitched in the 1975 World Series, and was an American League all-star selection in 1973.
But from speaking with him, the highlight of his career might have come in 1999 when he pitched for the winning side at the over-50 world championship in Spy Hill, Sask. His team, the Spy Hill Sidewinders, included friends from the Comox Valley, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, a cop and a bookie from Brockton, Mass., and a “gynecologist from Philadelphia in centre field.”
It’s difficult to tell when — and if — the Spaceman is being serious, his attention wavering between the interview and the game at the Highland ball diamond.
A movie about his life, Spaceman, was released in 2016. Lee was impressed that somebody wanted to make the film, but he wishes it had portrayed a different time of his life.
“It was based on two of the worst weeks of my life. I got divorced, and I got released (by the Expos). And I go, ‘What is this, a tragedy? What is it, like War and Peace?’ … They had flashbacks, about how I got in trouble in Boston (rumour has it he called then-Red Sox manager Don Zimmer a gerbil), how I got traded. And then they ended it on a nice note where I pitched pro ball at the age of 65, and won a ball game.”
That happened at his old high school field in San Rafael, Calif.
“In front of four of my ex-girlfriends. It was really great. Threw a complete game.”
He said his former flames were impressed with his efforts on the mound, but he wasn’t about to reunite with any of them.
“They missed their chance 40 years ago. I’m young. Tomorrow, my arm will actually feel stronger. And the next day it’ll feel stronger, and…Remember I could throw all day long. Just keep going.”
Lee owns a farm in Vermont — which he’s considering trading in for a place in the Comox Valley — and a home in San Francisco. He “doesn’t really like” the latter.
“I want to spend my winters here,” he said.
Spaceman’s attention switches to a man and two children who have stopped by. Lee picks up his glove, slaps his fist into it, and starts regaling with pointers and stories from the past.
And the impromptu interview comes to an abrupt end.