Page 10 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, August 30, 2019 whatever’s left of your son,” not a healthy quote to be given to the families, but ranks right up there with the style he exhibited. His religion growing up was A celebrated author By The Old Sachem, Bill Stewart T his week we look at an author who has written four books about baseball: “The Wrong Stuff;” “Have Glove, Will Travel: Adventures of a Baseball Vagabond;” “The Little Red (Sox) Book: A Revisionist Red Sox History;” and “Baseball Eccentrics: A Definitive Look at the Most Entertaining, Outrageous and Unforgettable Characters in the Game.” He certainly had exposure to these traits – I’m writing about the “Spaceman,” Bill Lee. William Francis Lee III was born December 28, 1946, in Burbank, California. Bill Lee is best known for his antics on and off the baseball diamond. He was born into a family of baseball players, some professional and some semipro. Lee’s grandfather William Lee was an infielder for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. An aunt, Annabelle Lee, was a pitcher for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The league was later introduced by the movie that featured the women players. Bill ventures that Annabelle taught him to pitch. Bill Lee played for Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, California. After graduation he went to the University of Southern California, majoring in physical education and geography and graduating in 1968. Lee was a pitchBill Stewart The Old Sachem er on the USC club that won the 1968 College World Series, then he was drafted on the twentysecond round of the 1968 draft by the Red Sox. He also served in the US Army Reserve for six years during the Vietnam War, as a Chemical Radiation Biological Officer for the 1173rd , earning Soldier of the Cycle at Fort Polk, Louisiana. One of his duties was to process dead soldiers from New England, call the families and tell them, “You can come get 505 Broadway Everett, MA 02149 Tel: 617-387-1120 www.gkdental.com • Family Dentistry • Crowns • Bridges • Veneers/Lumineers • Dental Implants • All on 4 Dental Implants • Emergency Dentist • Kid Friendly Dentist • Root Canals • Dentures • Invisalign Braces • Snap On Smile • Teeth Whitening We are the smile care experts for your entire family as a Catholic, but later in life he became a Rastafarian. Figures. Along the way he married Canadian-born Diana Donovan. Bill never did develop a good fastball so he diligently worked on off-speed pitches, including a variation of the renowned Eephus pitch, a pitch thrown high in the air to come down in the strike zone of the batter, not an easy thing to do. His variation was the Space Ball, a high, arcing trajectory that was very slow. He missed time with the Red Sox from June 1 to October 1 during the 1970 season when he was called to active duty in the Army Reserve. Bill Lee was used almost excluIn House Dental Plan for $399 (Cleanings, X-Rays, Exams twice a year and 20% OFF Dental work) Schedule your FREE Consultations today Everett Aluminum 10 Everett Ave., Everett 617-389-3839 Owned & operated by the Conti family since 1958 • 57 Years! “Same name, phone number & address for family since 1958 • 61 over half a century. We must be doing something right!” •Vinyl Siding •Free Estimates •Carpentry Work •Fully Licensed •Decks •Roofing • Fully Insured • Replacement Windows www.everettaluminum.com Now’s the time to schedule those home improvement projects you’ve been dreaming about all winter! sively as a relief pitcher during his first four seasons with the Sox, starting only nine games during that stretch, appearing in 125 games and having a record of 19 wins versus 11 defeats. The 1973 season was different for the Spaceman, he became a starting pitcher for the Red Sox and compiled a record of 17 and 11 in 38 games with an ERA of 2.95, which got him on the American League All-Star team. He followed that season with two more 17-win seasons for our divine Red Sox. In the 1975 World Series, Bill started two games for the Sox and left both games with the lead, but the Sox lost both games and the series to the Cincinnati Reds. His pitching career is also remembered for a game against the dreaded Yankees on May 20, 1976. The Sox got the final out in the sixth inning when Lou Pinella of the Yankees slid into Carlton Fisk with his spikes high. When Fisk tagged Pinella out at the plate an on-field brawl developed. Because of his part in the brawl, Lee would miss almost two months of the season, suffering a torn ligament in his pitching shoulder. During the 1978 season, Lee and manager Don Zimmer had an ongoing public feud over the way the manager handled the pitching staff. Zimmer was a staunch conservative and Lee was a liberal independent. Bill and a few team members formed their own group called “The Buffalo Heads” as a rebuke to the manager. Zimmer put Lee into the bullpen in retaliation and traded Lee’s associates, Ferguson Jenkins and Bernie Carbo. Lee was upset over the trade of Carbo and threatened to retire. Bill started to refer to the manager as “the gerbil,” which Zimmer saw as the last straw. Lee briefly left the team after pitching a 10-9 win over California, but returned a few days later. During the latter part of the season when the Sox were battling the Yankees for the pennant, Zimmer refused to pitch Lee, and the Sox lost the pennant in a one-game playoff. Zimmer got his wish in dumping the Spaceman at the end of the 1978 season; Lee was traded to the Montreal Expos, for Stan Papi. His farewell shot to Zimmer was “Who wants to be with a team that will go down in history alongside the ’64 Phillies and the ’67 Arabs.” He won 16 games for the Expos in 1979 and was named The Sporting News National League Left Hander of the Year, beating out Steve Carlton of Philadelphia for the prize. The 1980 season was another Lee conundrum. He was on the cover of the magazine High Times for admitting to the use of marijuana. He was called into the office of the Baseball Commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, and told the commissioner he didn’t smoke weed – he only put it on his pancakes. His major league career came to an end in 1982; he was released by the Expos for staging a one-game protest walkout over the release of a comrade, Rodney OLD SACHEM | SEE PAGE 20 Summer is Here!
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