OT: Former Bosox Pitcher Running For Governor In VT

[JavaMan]

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A former Major League Baseball player is running for governor in Vermont as a member of the Liberty Union party, which bills itself as nonviolent and socialist.

​

Bill "Spaceman" Lee tells WCAX-TV voters will "need umbrellas" if he's elected because "it's going to be raining dollars," referring to money trickling down from the wealthy.

Lee pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 1969 to 1978. He was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame in 2008.

Lee says he's a "pragmatic, conservative, forward thinker." He supports legalizing marijuana, a single-payer health care system and paid family leave.

LINK

 

[meyers7]

Haha, they didn't call him "Spaceman" for nothing.

 

[johnnyc]

One single punch from Graig Nettles.....one giant oddball for mankind.

 

[Icebear]

Bill caught more than one ball hit up the middle either behind his back or between his legs.

 

[Vowelguy]

Bill caught more than one ball hit up the middle either behind his back or between his legs.

Im thinking he took a few baseballs to the head too.

 

[JordyG]

In parts of Vermont (I think particularly around Burlington) The Spaceman fits right in. Might even get some out of state write-ins from Back Bay. After Bill got hit in the head with one ball I started calling him "Stagger" Lee.

 

[Zorro]

Bill got his reputation for being a space man by being more intelligent, articulate and intellectual than his contemporaries. He was a student of the kinetics of the pitching motion, which marked him as a nutty intellectual in the eyes of baseball in general. This seems not to have bothered him at all. (See Bouton's "Ball Four") He would probably make a damned good gov.

 

[Charles T]

Graig Nettles denied hurting Lee: "I broke his shoulder. He makes his living with his mouth."

 

[Milfordfan]

Back in the day, reports were that, when asked which he preferred: artificial turf or natural grass, he answered: "I don't know, I've never smoked artificial turf".

 

[Dillon77]

For those of a certain age, remember rocker Warren Zevon wrote a song about/for "Bill Lee," which sounded as iconoclastic as the pitcher himself (and maybe Zevon, himself). Here's an article on Zevon, Lee and the song and you hear all 90+ seconds of it within the article. "And sometimes I say things I shouldn't....."

Bloop Hits: Warren Zevon and Bill Lee