Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Card King here right come. Hello, sports fans, sports collectors,
and all hobbyists. Welcome to The Car King Sports and
Variety Show. I am your host, the Katman, Brian katequit
aka the car King. We are live on ABC's k
n e T fourteen ninety a m dot com. You're
number one spot right here for news and talk on
the West Coast. I thank everyone for tuning in this
(00:34):
morning on the telephone line. I welcome in legendary Red
Sox pitcher and what I consider a baseball rock star.
We welcome into pitching phena, Bill Lee. Bill. Great to
have you.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, thanks for having me West Coastavoire, Alaska.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, you know, I had a little theme music and
I don't know what happened, maybe a little technical difficulty,
but you know, thanks for coming on the show. Finally
got you here. You're such a busy man, Bill, tell
us what you're doing, how you're feeling, what's going on.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, I'm designing bats for thirteen and fourteen year olds
to help them with the transition between bad alluminum bats
that are you know, minus thirteen ounces two plus threes
and stuff that they have to use in the big
leagues and at least minus threes, and I'm trying to
(01:28):
make a bat that helps them get to the big
leagues easier.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Wow, so give us so tell us take us back
Bill if you can. You signed a nineteen sixty eight
as a free agent with the Red Sox. One year later,
you're pitching in the major leagues. First, tell us how
the Red Sox heard about Bill Lee.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
That's a good question. I never really asked him. I
know Tommy Losordo wanted me to sign with the Dodds
in the worst way, and a few years ago when
he had that, he was on a show. He said,
I remember you. You're that asshole that wanted to be
a forest ranger and wouldn't sign with the Dodgers. I said, Tommy,
(02:14):
you're a steel trap, you know. And I didn't know
the Boston but it was Ray Boone. I believe Ray
Boone played for them, and Bob Boone was my catcher
up at the Alaska gold Panters, and they knew I
was a good pitcher, but I wasn't well respected because
I didn't throw hard and therefore drafted very low, even
(02:35):
though I was thirty eight and eight with the USC
Trojans led him to a national championship at sixty eight,
but I was very underrated. You know, I'm a late bloomer,
and that's a good thing because I'm still alive.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And you know, Bill, and in the beginning of the show,
I called you a baseball rock star, because you really
are a rock star. I mean, you still as popular
as ever you sought after. You're doing all these events
and now you're pitching with the Savannah Bananas. Explain to
us what you know our listeners here who may not
know of the Savannah Bananas. Who are they? What are they?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
They're rock stars. They've taken the game and brought it
back to the fans, the kids. They're the pipe piper
of Hamlin. You know, Jesse Cole in his yellow uniform
goes around with a baton and he leads families for
the love of the game and respect the game and
play it with a lot of emotion and get it
(03:38):
over in two hours, which most nationalgue umpires really like
because they could be at the bar in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
At Bill. You know, when you watch baseball on television today,
I mean, can you believe the salaries these guys are making.
I mean, a guy like Juan Soto I mean, the
guy's making seven hundred sixty five million dollars. I mean,
he's doing so bad. I mean, what a ridiculous price
(04:07):
tag they gave him. I mean, these guys, they make
so much money, and they weren't the players that played
during the golden age of baseball.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
No, the teams that are playing well are adapting and
having long at bats and fighting out and hitting balls
the other way and are grinding him out, which is
true baseball. And I think they'll figure that out, that
the game should be played the way it was in
the sixties, seventies, thirties, twenties, you know, and the old
school baseball, which fans really appreciate, the true baseball fan does.
(04:40):
They don't like swinging the missus, they don't like the
home run, they don't like long games, and you know,
a lot of walks and a lot of strikeouts. They
want to see baseball the way it was played, And
you're right, and the bananas. They accentuate that by making
the fans participate in the game. And yeah, I am
(05:00):
a rock star because I locked Bob Dylan out of
his house when Sarah Dillon divorced him. When I was
in Malibu I was Malibu lock and key. I was
a locksmith. I locked Neil Diamond out of his house.
You know, they all came to me first because they're
divorcing their husbands, the sheriff, the locksmith, and the wife.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
We're talking with the legendary spaceman Red Sox pitcher, Bill Lee.
He's with us this morning. So build through your travels
in baseball, and with all your recognition and fame, you
must have met so many celebrities. Give us some like
like this story that you just mentioned about Bob Dylan.
Give us some other stories that we may not know.
(05:45):
Bill Lee's experience in life.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, the people I associated with, writers, philosophers. I really
didn't deal with celebrities that much. You know. I was
more of a Kurt Vonnegut, read all of his books.
Robert Fisk, who you don't know. He wrote The Great
War for Civilization. If if George W. Bush had read that,
(06:09):
there would never have been nine to eleven. You know,
I more David Halberstam, good friend that wrote most of
the books on baseball, and also The Coldest Winner about
the Ted Williams and his feats in the Korean War.
You know, Ted and I were best friends. We grew
(06:30):
up in southern California. He was known as the greatest
hitter ever lived. And I said, Ted, you were. You
hit on all three of my wives, you know, so
I've got that quote from me. He's six hit on
Mary Lou pregnant at the pool and Winter have it.
(06:51):
He hit on Am at fantasy camp when he was
doing the Red Sox Fantasy camps with Bobby dor and
Pesky and all the guys. And then he hit on
my present wife in a wheelchair at the Breakers Hotel
in Palm Beach. He was the greatest hitter that they
ever lived.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
No, that is that true.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That is absolutely true. That's the thing about my life
is serendipity. It's very private, but I do. I keep
it there and I hide on a farm in northern Vermont.
And you know it's I've written books. I tell you
there's a story written by me that every fan should read.
It's by George Placis, and I've got it right here.
(07:33):
And this is what fans if they want to know.
Billy the rebel hero in baseball, Bill Spaceman Lee in
an orbit all his own. George Placus. He was at
Auburn University, and he wrote it Volume twenty one, page
one twenty one to one thirty eight. You read that
and you will know me.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
And Bill. You know, I got to remind everyone you
had three consecus of years in a row nineteen seventy three,
seventy four, seventy five. You won seventeen games in a row.
And I saw a video on YouTube where Fred lind says,
I mean, Bill Lee was unbelievable pitching in degree, you
know at the Green Monster, a left handed pitcher winning
(08:18):
three years in a row, seventeen games. That's all you
need to know.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I was nine in two and seventy one. When they
finally used me in seventy two, I only pitched. I
had no starts. Eddie Casco didn't pitch me. We lost
to Detroit by a half a game. We lost to
that game because I wore a T shirt in spring training,
a rolling stone's tongue that said licked Dick in seventy
two and really not play me. You can look it up.
(08:45):
I would have won seventeen games that year too, but
he was stupid. He had a guy named Roger Morrett
forty eight and eighteen. He didn't use him. Either. You know,
I'm telling you the guy was as dumb as a
post and a Republican.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well, you know, I may piss you off a little
bit with this question. What was the deal with Don Zimmer?
I was too young to know about what happened.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
He was the second dumbest guy I ever met. He
was dumb too. He was a gambler. I don't even
think he could read her right. You know he always
went to the dog track, him and the ground crew
Joe Mooney. They send the clubhouse boy out the place
bets over at freaking the dog track and it's Suffolk downs.
You know, the guy was a gambler. He's from Cincinnati.
(09:31):
What did what was his name? Your listenes S? Grant
say about Cincinnati during the Civil War? He said they
should all be hung by the neck until dead.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I mean, I mean nineteen seventy one, you were the
Red Sox fireman of the year. Yes, what do you right?
You were? Now? Have you heard this? The best? You
were the best Red Sox lefty since Mel Parnell? Do
you with.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
One hundred percent? I look that and the fact that
they misused me all this time. Hey in nineteen eighty one,
look up my record with the expos I got released,
not picked up by any team. Dick Williams wanted me
in San Diego, and Ballard Smith and Jack McKeon wouldn't
let me on the field. Look that up. I was
(10:22):
blackballed from the game of baseball. Why because I'm one
of the guys that got the salaries for all the
ball players, which goes back to your original question on Soto.
You know, and the funny thing is, these guys are
making way too much money and the owners never opened
their books, and it's their fault. First, if they had
opened their books, we would have had a really good
(10:45):
system where everybody was paid the right amount of money.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, I mean, you know, and Bill, this is why
I love radio because we can go all over the place.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
You know, Street, I love radio. I only listened to radio.
I do not have TV.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, unscripted. This is why I love radio. So I
want to go back to seventy one. You relieved, I don't.
I don't know if you recall this game. You relieved
Jim Longborg Lomborg third inning, you.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Health six yeah, yeah, right right, and you.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Beat the Yanks seven of four. Would that was your
first Major League win?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah. Probably. Well, I think I'm thirteen and four lifetime
against the Yankees. I'm a Yankee killer. I love the
pitch against the Yankees.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Now, have you heard that in your early years people
say that you look like Jim Longberg? Have you heard that?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I do. I saw a picture of me and Wooster
when I had my heart attack, and I said I
didn't look good. I looked like Jim Lomborg. But Jim
Longber was healthier in me my third heart attack. I
got a picture of it. The guy gave it to me.
I do look like Jim Lomborg. The funny thing is
we are exact mere opposites. He is very conservative and
(11:59):
I am very liberal. I believe in the curveball. He
said the curveball hurt your arm. Guess who had proven
right last year? Bill Lee?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
And speaking about these pitchers to talk about the leafis pitch,
because there weren't many people during your era throwing that
that blue pitch. I believe Dave laruche had the lablob.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, he had that. I had the rotation, though I
had the best because I threw my hips back and
I got more rotation on it, and I had more
vertical drop. And the funny thing is I have a
movie out now that's gone viral called ephus.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah. I read a statistic that when you threw the
leaf as it was like sixty percent accurate.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
It was. I have amazing control with it. I still
have amazing control with it. And the funny thing is
Poluccio with the White Sox. He swung at it three
times and missed and charged the mound. I laughed my ASDs.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Off and Bill, I gotta ask you this. I had
Tony Pere on the show. We spoke a little bit
about the seventy five World Series. You threw him that
pitch and then he hits the home run.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Was that that shread? That was? That was the thread?
And he should never have come up because bench hit
a double play ball before and I was mad. You
never let a pitcher pitch mad. You come out, you
stop him right there. We had terrible management back then,
Darryl Johnson, terrible.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah. And you know it was basically yourself, Bill Lee
and Louis Tian who made the Red Sox contenders. You
know ba on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Wise also Wise Wise was a inning eater too, Wise
Inning Lee and and Morett. Morett was eleven and one
that year. I think Morett was the guy. If we
use Morett in Game two after the rain delay, Bench
doesn't hit the double leading off the ninth inning, and
we win the World Series because when Fist hit the
(13:52):
home run, that would have been four wins for us.
You know, if I win Game two, there is no
Aphis pitch to Perez.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Right right, and we're talking with Bill Lee. He's with
us this morning, Bill Lee, the spaceman. Bill. I gotta
ask you this. I just thought of this. You had
catchers Carlton Fisk with the Red Sox, and then you
went to the Expos. Yeah, Gary, Carter pivot old game
for you. Who would you want to catch you behind
the plate?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Carter back, so I would write, you know what I'd
like to catch me behind the plate would be Bob Boone.
I thought he was my best receiver up in Alaska.
You know, he was good. But Carter never missed a pitch.
You know, he was quick as a cat, you know,
and I basically I didn't listen to I changed pitches
(14:43):
in the middle. I never pitched the you know too.
I pitched my pitch when I wanted to. I would
read things in the middle of my wind up and
change pitches, you know. And I think that Carter was
a really good I never crossed up. I didn't throw
that hard. Fist was good, but this was methodical and slow.
I didn't like the way he called games. Took too long.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Really, so you prefer so you in your opinion, you
think Carter was better for you behind the plate than
caught in Fisk.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, all the other catchers that caught me had better
records than Fisk, So you know what I'm saying. It
just statistically it shows he and I didn't get along.
We looked a lot alike too, you know, and we
battled each other, you know, Fisk and I I got
I just didn't get along with him that Well, he
was too slow. When he's on his deathbed, it'll be
(15:37):
there for five years.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Well wait a minute, So you didn't get along with Fisk.
Who else didn't you get along with in the clubhouse
at anyone else?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
No, Ustremsky was my bridge partner. He was a pain
in the ass.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
You got along with the pictures. Yeah, we were separated.
Pictures all were on one side, hitters were on the others.
There was a duality and stuff. It was a segregation
that we had. Blacks were all on one side I
was usually with in Montreal. I was the only white
guy on the black side of the room, you know.
And they said, Bill, you're the only white guy out
(16:13):
on the back of the plane. And I said, boys,
I'm from la I ain't white.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
So you know, I'm just looking at some of these
career highlights of yours. Nineteen seventy three, you make the
All Star team. Was how is that experience for you
being a member of the All Star nineteen seventy three
All Star team?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Terrible?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Terrible? What happened?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I had to ride with Reggie Jackson, I missed the
team bus that all he did was talk my ears off.
Then we got to the ballpark and Dick Williams wanted
to know if there were any pitchers that weren't one
hundred percent positive they could get all the National League
hitters out. And I raised my arm and he goes, Bill,
why I go Because my dad said, only fools are positive.
(17:01):
Man wowing getting the game you were. That's why not
too many people know that story. But Dick brought me
up to the big leagues. Dick brought me to Montreal.
Dick did not release me. Dick loved me. He said
it was the only pitcher that had any guts.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
He loved me, There's no question about that. And this
is why baseball. I think you intimidated a lot of
people in baseball because you.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Were all intimidated every every I intimidated them all because
I know the answers, you know, and they don't like that.
Because I'm a philosopher, I'm a I'm smart, I'm autistic,
I'm dyslexic, I know a lot.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
That's what I mean. You were your own manager, and
they didn't like and they didn't like that.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
You were No. I didn't like that.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
They didn't like it. You were You were baseball entertainment
before it became a business today, you were baseball entertainment.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
That's why I'm still playing. I'm still playing because people
desire my presence and that's the greatest honor you can get.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Absolutely, that's why you're the rock star. And you know,
I had a little clip of the Harry Nielsen tune.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I wanted to get it in bang Bang shuat him up,
bang bang, shoot him up, Destiny. Yeah, I don't like
space pen around and around and around and around. It's
all a bunch of lunacy. Hey, mother Earth, bring me
back down, Bring me back down to the ground, you know.
And Warren Zevon, you're supposed to sit on your ass
and not as stupid things. He read a quote from
me and he made it into a song. And that's why,
(18:38):
you know, Eddie Vedder, he loves me, all of pearl
Jam loves me. You know. I have tons of friends
in the rock and roll industry, you know, and the
damn again and stuff like that. Hey, mister space man,
it's all an honor to me and I'm thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Yeah. And while I have you here, I want to
see if we have it, Sean, do we have the
little clip of space man. Let's let's let me hear it.
I wanted to be a space man. This is what
I wanted to be. Even now that I am a
space man, nobody cares about.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Me and man around.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
I want to bring me back down seventy two see
round and around, round and around. So she ever said
to me, I want to make food.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I wanted to go to go.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
I needed it at me for I told some real story.
I want to be a space man. I want to
be so bad now that I am a spaceman came
up that there it is the space Man, and we
(20:02):
have with us the original space Man. Bill leaves with us.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, it's an honor. It's an honor to be well
respected by the alternative universe.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That's a great song, Bill, I mean that's a I mean,
that's your song, Man, that's a great song.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
It is a great song, and they play it. I
got one of the great clips that you haven't seen
is when I drink the beer, throw it over my shoulder.
I go out and they sing this song and I
throw a fastball by a guy pops it up to
right field, and I win the ballgame on one pitch
with the bananas. And that's what I do. I can
still get big league hitters out because I only gotta
(20:43):
throw one pitch and someone's gonna catch it.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
And I have a couple of more minutes with you.
I want to get two more in Bill. The hardest
pitcher for you you ever faced, and the easiest I
mean sorry, the hardest batter you ever pitched to, and
the e as she pitched to, who was the toughest.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Out, the hardest, the hardest pitcher I faced was JR.
Richards when he threw the ball behind me in Houston.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Right, No, well you were a good hitter too.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Did Yeah, well you were a good hitter was ton
left hander and the hardest right handed hitter was Billy Mettlock.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Bill Medlock and TONI o Leva. But you are also
a good hitter, right I was.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
I get the last triple in the American League in
the regular season. You can look it up.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Yeah, and you know I want to get this last
one in. I love watching the David Letterman Show with
your appearance. Uh and you know back then you appeared
on that show in nineteen ninety. There weren't many baseball
players on the show. I think Hank Aaron did it
in eighty two, and then I think Mantle did it
in eighty seven. You did it in ninety if if
(21:53):
I'm correct, I think you were the third ballplayer on
the Letterman Show. How was your experience doing the Letterman Show?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
It was great. I said something wrong and a contact
lens came out of his eye and they show it
in slow motion hitting the table. So it was a
memorable appearance.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
All right, So what's down the pipeline for you? What
do you got going on.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I'm pitching tomorrow at eleven o'clock at Burlington High School
for my baseball team thirty five and over, So I'm
still playing. You know, all I gotta do is make
it through Saturday.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And you're still appearing at some of these sports conventions, right,
signing your autographs.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, they're bringing me around more and more, but it's
I'm getting there. Basically, my fans are supporting me with
five dollars for beer, but I've used their last money
they sent me for four truck tires. You know, I
only make sixty eight hundred dollars my pension by Social Security.
I don't really need much in life. I have a
(22:56):
beautiful farm up here in Vermont. I just have trouble
getting up and cleaning out the cobwebs. I'm getting kind
of old, and you.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Know you're in Vermont. I didn't know in the past
you had some relations with Bernie Sanders, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I worked for him. I was the writer ranger. I
tried to get people to carpool to save fuel and
keep the congestion off the roads. But we only have
five hundred and twenty seven thousand people here, so you
know it wasn't well well interpreted. We all drive a
truck John there, and we pick up hitchhikers because if
we don't go freeze to death.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
And this is my last one. I'm sorry. You know,
I want to get this in. You didn't event with,
You didn't event with Johnny bench You mentioned though, what
was that about.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
He's the best, he's the smartest catcher. He's the only
one that doesn't wear the tools of ignorance.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
All right, so listen, I really appreciate your time. This
was great, This was an honor for me.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Well, thank you, thank you for having me on. Good
luck to everybody on the West Coast. I love them all. Bye.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Thanks Bill. That there, it is the legendary Bill Lee.
You just heard him trying to get him on a
few weeks ago. He's been so busy. I mean he's
traveling doing events. I saw him at a sports card
show in Massachusetts. He's still sought after. I mean, he
is what I call major League Baseball's rock star. Thank
you so much, Bill, and until next week, happy collecting
(24:26):
to all.
Card King here right come. Hello, sports fans, sports collectors,
and all hobbyists. Welcome to The Car King Sports and
Variety Show. I am your host, the Katman, Brian katequit
aka the car King. We are live on ABC's k
n e T fourteen ninety a m dot com. You're
number one spot right here for news and talk on
the West Coast. I thank everyone for tuning in this
(00:34):
morning on the telephone line. I welcome in legendary Red
Sox pitcher and what I consider a baseball rock star.
We welcome into pitching phena, Bill Lee. Bill. Great to
have you.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, thanks for having me West Coastavoire, Alaska.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, you know, I had a little theme music and
I don't know what happened, maybe a little technical difficulty,
but you know, thanks for coming on the show. Finally
got you here. You're such a busy man, Bill, tell
us what you're doing, how you're feeling, what's going on.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, I'm designing bats for thirteen and fourteen year olds
to help them with the transition between bad alluminum bats
that are you know, minus thirteen ounces two plus threes
and stuff that they have to use in the big
leagues and at least minus threes, and I'm trying to
(01:28):
make a bat that helps them get to the big
leagues easier.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Wow, so give us so tell us take us back
Bill if you can. You signed a nineteen sixty eight
as a free agent with the Red Sox. One year later,
you're pitching in the major leagues. First, tell us how
the Red Sox heard about Bill Lee.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
That's a good question. I never really asked him. I
know Tommy Losordo wanted me to sign with the Dodds
in the worst way, and a few years ago when
he had that, he was on a show. He said,
I remember you. You're that asshole that wanted to be
a forest ranger and wouldn't sign with the Dodgers. I said, Tommy,
(02:14):
you're a steel trap, you know. And I didn't know
the Boston but it was Ray Boone. I believe Ray
Boone played for them, and Bob Boone was my catcher
up at the Alaska gold Panters, and they knew I
was a good pitcher, but I wasn't well respected because
I didn't throw hard and therefore drafted very low, even
(02:35):
though I was thirty eight and eight with the USC
Trojans led him to a national championship at sixty eight,
but I was very underrated. You know, I'm a late bloomer,
and that's a good thing because I'm still alive.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And you know, Bill, and in the beginning of the show,
I called you a baseball rock star, because you really
are a rock star. I mean, you still as popular
as ever you sought after. You're doing all these events
and now you're pitching with the Savannah Bananas. Explain to
us what you know our listeners here who may not
know of the Savannah Bananas. Who are they? What are they?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
They're rock stars. They've taken the game and brought it
back to the fans, the kids. They're the pipe piper
of Hamlin. You know, Jesse Cole in his yellow uniform
goes around with a baton and he leads families for
the love of the game and respect the game and
play it with a lot of emotion and get it
(03:38):
over in two hours, which most nationalgue umpires really like
because they could be at the bar in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
At Bill. You know, when you watch baseball on television today,
I mean, can you believe the salaries these guys are making.
I mean, a guy like Juan Soto I mean, the
guy's making seven hundred sixty five million dollars. I mean,
he's doing so bad. I mean, what a ridiculous price
(04:07):
tag they gave him. I mean, these guys, they make
so much money, and they weren't the players that played
during the golden age of baseball.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
No, the teams that are playing well are adapting and
having long at bats and fighting out and hitting balls
the other way and are grinding him out, which is
true baseball. And I think they'll figure that out, that
the game should be played the way it was in
the sixties, seventies, thirties, twenties, you know, and the old
school baseball, which fans really appreciate, the true baseball fan does.
(04:40):
They don't like swinging the missus, they don't like the
home run, they don't like long games, and you know,
a lot of walks and a lot of strikeouts. They
want to see baseball the way it was played, And
you're right, and the bananas. They accentuate that by making
the fans participate in the game. And yeah, I am
(05:00):
a rock star because I locked Bob Dylan out of
his house when Sarah Dillon divorced him. When I was
in Malibu I was Malibu lock and key. I was
a locksmith. I locked Neil Diamond out of his house.
You know, they all came to me first because they're
divorcing their husbands, the sheriff, the locksmith, and the wife.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
We're talking with the legendary spaceman Red Sox pitcher, Bill Lee.
He's with us this morning. So build through your travels
in baseball, and with all your recognition and fame, you
must have met so many celebrities. Give us some like
like this story that you just mentioned about Bob Dylan.
Give us some other stories that we may not know.
(05:45):
Bill Lee's experience in life.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, the people I associated with, writers, philosophers. I really
didn't deal with celebrities that much. You know. I was
more of a Kurt Vonnegut, read all of his books.
Robert Fisk, who you don't know. He wrote The Great
War for Civilization. If if George W. Bush had read that,
(06:09):
there would never have been nine to eleven. You know,
I more David Halberstam, good friend that wrote most of
the books on baseball, and also The Coldest Winner about
the Ted Williams and his feats in the Korean War.
You know, Ted and I were best friends. We grew
(06:30):
up in southern California. He was known as the greatest
hitter ever lived. And I said, Ted, you were. You
hit on all three of my wives, you know, so
I've got that quote from me. He's six hit on
Mary Lou pregnant at the pool and Winter have it.
(06:51):
He hit on Am at fantasy camp when he was
doing the Red Sox Fantasy camps with Bobby dor and
Pesky and all the guys. And then he hit on
my present wife in a wheelchair at the Breakers Hotel
in Palm Beach. He was the greatest hitter that they
ever lived.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
No, that is that true.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That is absolutely true. That's the thing about my life
is serendipity. It's very private, but I do. I keep
it there and I hide on a farm in northern Vermont.
And you know it's I've written books. I tell you
there's a story written by me that every fan should read.
It's by George Placis, and I've got it right here.
(07:33):
And this is what fans if they want to know.
Billy the rebel hero in baseball, Bill Spaceman Lee in
an orbit all his own. George Placus. He was at
Auburn University, and he wrote it Volume twenty one, page
one twenty one to one thirty eight. You read that
and you will know me.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
And Bill. You know, I got to remind everyone you
had three consecus of years in a row nineteen seventy three,
seventy four, seventy five. You won seventeen games in a row.
And I saw a video on YouTube where Fred lind says,
I mean, Bill Lee was unbelievable pitching in degree, you
know at the Green Monster, a left handed pitcher winning
(08:18):
three years in a row, seventeen games. That's all you
need to know.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I was nine in two and seventy one. When they
finally used me in seventy two, I only pitched. I
had no starts. Eddie Casco didn't pitch me. We lost
to Detroit by a half a game. We lost to
that game because I wore a T shirt in spring training,
a rolling stone's tongue that said licked Dick in seventy
two and really not play me. You can look it up.
(08:45):
I would have won seventeen games that year too, but
he was stupid. He had a guy named Roger Morrett
forty eight and eighteen. He didn't use him. Either. You know,
I'm telling you the guy was as dumb as a
post and a Republican.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well, you know, I may piss you off a little
bit with this question. What was the deal with Don Zimmer?
I was too young to know about what happened.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
He was the second dumbest guy I ever met. He
was dumb too. He was a gambler. I don't even
think he could read her right. You know he always
went to the dog track, him and the ground crew
Joe Mooney. They send the clubhouse boy out the place
bets over at freaking the dog track and it's Suffolk downs.
You know, the guy was a gambler. He's from Cincinnati.
(09:31):
What did what was his name? Your listenes S? Grant
say about Cincinnati during the Civil War? He said they
should all be hung by the neck until dead.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I mean, I mean nineteen seventy one, you were the
Red Sox fireman of the year. Yes, what do you right?
You were? Now? Have you heard this? The best? You
were the best Red Sox lefty since Mel Parnell? Do
you with.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
One hundred percent? I look that and the fact that
they misused me all this time. Hey in nineteen eighty one,
look up my record with the expos I got released,
not picked up by any team. Dick Williams wanted me
in San Diego, and Ballard Smith and Jack McKeon wouldn't
let me on the field. Look that up. I was
(10:22):
blackballed from the game of baseball. Why because I'm one
of the guys that got the salaries for all the
ball players, which goes back to your original question on Soto.
You know, and the funny thing is, these guys are
making way too much money and the owners never opened
their books, and it's their fault. First, if they had
opened their books, we would have had a really good
(10:45):
system where everybody was paid the right amount of money.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, I mean, you know, and Bill, this is why
I love radio because we can go all over the place.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
You know, Street, I love radio. I only listened to radio.
I do not have TV.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, unscripted. This is why I love radio. So I
want to go back to seventy one. You relieved, I don't.
I don't know if you recall this game. You relieved
Jim Longborg Lomborg third inning, you.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Health six yeah, yeah, right right, and you.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Beat the Yanks seven of four. Would that was your
first Major League win?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah. Probably. Well, I think I'm thirteen and four lifetime
against the Yankees. I'm a Yankee killer. I love the
pitch against the Yankees.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Now, have you heard that in your early years people
say that you look like Jim Longberg? Have you heard that?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I do. I saw a picture of me and Wooster
when I had my heart attack, and I said I
didn't look good. I looked like Jim Lomborg. But Jim
Longber was healthier in me my third heart attack. I
got a picture of it. The guy gave it to me.
I do look like Jim Lomborg. The funny thing is
we are exact mere opposites. He is very conservative and
(11:59):
I am very liberal. I believe in the curveball. He
said the curveball hurt your arm. Guess who had proven
right last year? Bill Lee?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
And speaking about these pitchers to talk about the leafis pitch,
because there weren't many people during your era throwing that
that blue pitch. I believe Dave laruche had the lablob.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, he had that. I had the rotation, though I
had the best because I threw my hips back and
I got more rotation on it, and I had more
vertical drop. And the funny thing is I have a
movie out now that's gone viral called ephus.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah. I read a statistic that when you threw the
leaf as it was like sixty percent accurate.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
It was. I have amazing control with it. I still
have amazing control with it. And the funny thing is
Poluccio with the White Sox. He swung at it three
times and missed and charged the mound. I laughed my ASDs.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Off and Bill, I gotta ask you this. I had
Tony Pere on the show. We spoke a little bit
about the seventy five World Series. You threw him that
pitch and then he hits the home run.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Was that that shread? That was? That was the thread?
And he should never have come up because bench hit
a double play ball before and I was mad. You
never let a pitcher pitch mad. You come out, you
stop him right there. We had terrible management back then,
Darryl Johnson, terrible.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah. And you know it was basically yourself, Bill Lee
and Louis Tian who made the Red Sox contenders. You
know ba on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Wise also Wise Wise was a inning eater too, Wise
Inning Lee and and Morett. Morett was eleven and one
that year. I think Morett was the guy. If we
use Morett in Game two after the rain delay, Bench
doesn't hit the double leading off the ninth inning, and
we win the World Series because when Fist hit the
(13:52):
home run, that would have been four wins for us.
You know, if I win Game two, there is no
Aphis pitch to Perez.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Right right, and we're talking with Bill Lee. He's with
us this morning, Bill Lee, the spaceman. Bill. I gotta
ask you this. I just thought of this. You had
catchers Carlton Fisk with the Red Sox, and then you
went to the Expos. Yeah, Gary, Carter pivot old game
for you. Who would you want to catch you behind
the plate?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Carter back, so I would write, you know what I'd
like to catch me behind the plate would be Bob Boone.
I thought he was my best receiver up in Alaska.
You know, he was good. But Carter never missed a pitch.
You know, he was quick as a cat, you know,
and I basically I didn't listen to I changed pitches
(14:43):
in the middle. I never pitched the you know too.
I pitched my pitch when I wanted to. I would
read things in the middle of my wind up and
change pitches, you know. And I think that Carter was
a really good I never crossed up. I didn't throw
that hard. Fist was good, but this was methodical and slow.
I didn't like the way he called games. Took too long.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Really, so you prefer so you in your opinion, you
think Carter was better for you behind the plate than
caught in Fisk.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, all the other catchers that caught me had better
records than Fisk, So you know what I'm saying. It
just statistically it shows he and I didn't get along.
We looked a lot alike too, you know, and we
battled each other, you know, Fisk and I I got
I just didn't get along with him that Well, he
was too slow. When he's on his deathbed, it'll be
(15:37):
there for five years.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Well wait a minute, So you didn't get along with Fisk.
Who else didn't you get along with in the clubhouse
at anyone else?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
No, Ustremsky was my bridge partner. He was a pain
in the ass.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
You got along with the pictures. Yeah, we were separated.
Pictures all were on one side, hitters were on the others.
There was a duality and stuff. It was a segregation
that we had. Blacks were all on one side I
was usually with in Montreal. I was the only white
guy on the black side of the room, you know.
And they said, Bill, you're the only white guy out
(16:13):
on the back of the plane. And I said, boys,
I'm from la I ain't white.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
So you know, I'm just looking at some of these
career highlights of yours. Nineteen seventy three, you make the
All Star team. Was how is that experience for you
being a member of the All Star nineteen seventy three
All Star team?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Terrible?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Terrible? What happened?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I had to ride with Reggie Jackson, I missed the
team bus that all he did was talk my ears off.
Then we got to the ballpark and Dick Williams wanted
to know if there were any pitchers that weren't one
hundred percent positive they could get all the National League
hitters out. And I raised my arm and he goes, Bill,
why I go Because my dad said, only fools are positive.
(17:01):
Man wowing getting the game you were. That's why not
too many people know that story. But Dick brought me
up to the big leagues. Dick brought me to Montreal.
Dick did not release me. Dick loved me. He said
it was the only pitcher that had any guts.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
He loved me, There's no question about that. And this
is why baseball. I think you intimidated a lot of
people in baseball because you.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Were all intimidated every every I intimidated them all because
I know the answers, you know, and they don't like that.
Because I'm a philosopher, I'm a I'm smart, I'm autistic,
I'm dyslexic, I know a lot.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
That's what I mean. You were your own manager, and
they didn't like and they didn't like that.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
You were No. I didn't like that.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
They didn't like it. You were You were baseball entertainment
before it became a business today, you were baseball entertainment.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
That's why I'm still playing. I'm still playing because people
desire my presence and that's the greatest honor you can get.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Absolutely, that's why you're the rock star. And you know,
I had a little clip of the Harry Nielsen tune.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I wanted to get it in bang Bang shuat him up,
bang bang, shoot him up, Destiny. Yeah, I don't like
space pen around and around and around and around. It's
all a bunch of lunacy. Hey, mother Earth, bring me
back down, Bring me back down to the ground, you know.
And Warren Zevon, you're supposed to sit on your ass
and not as stupid things. He read a quote from
me and he made it into a song. And that's why,
(18:38):
you know, Eddie Vedder, he loves me, all of pearl
Jam loves me. You know. I have tons of friends
in the rock and roll industry, you know, and the
damn again and stuff like that. Hey, mister space man,
it's all an honor to me and I'm thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Yeah. And while I have you here, I want to
see if we have it, Sean, do we have the
little clip of space man. Let's let's let me hear it.
I wanted to be a space man. This is what
I wanted to be. Even now that I am a
space man, nobody cares about.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Me and man around.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
I want to bring me back down seventy two see
round and around, round and around. So she ever said
to me, I want to make food.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I wanted to go to go.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
I needed it at me for I told some real story.
I want to be a space man. I want to
be so bad now that I am a spaceman came
up that there it is the space Man, and we
(20:02):
have with us the original space Man. Bill leaves with us.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, it's an honor. It's an honor to be well
respected by the alternative universe.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That's a great song, Bill, I mean that's a I mean,
that's your song, Man, that's a great song.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
It is a great song, and they play it. I
got one of the great clips that you haven't seen
is when I drink the beer, throw it over my shoulder.
I go out and they sing this song and I
throw a fastball by a guy pops it up to
right field, and I win the ballgame on one pitch
with the bananas. And that's what I do. I can
still get big league hitters out because I only gotta
(20:43):
throw one pitch and someone's gonna catch it.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
And I have a couple of more minutes with you.
I want to get two more in Bill. The hardest
pitcher for you you ever faced, and the easiest I
mean sorry, the hardest batter you ever pitched to, and
the e as she pitched to, who was the toughest.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Out, the hardest, the hardest pitcher I faced was JR.
Richards when he threw the ball behind me in Houston.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Right, No, well you were a good hitter too.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Did Yeah, well you were a good hitter was ton
left hander and the hardest right handed hitter was Billy Mettlock.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Bill Medlock and TONI o Leva. But you are also
a good hitter, right I was.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
I get the last triple in the American League in
the regular season. You can look it up.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Yeah, and you know I want to get this last
one in. I love watching the David Letterman Show with
your appearance. Uh and you know back then you appeared
on that show in nineteen ninety. There weren't many baseball
players on the show. I think Hank Aaron did it
in eighty two, and then I think Mantle did it
in eighty seven. You did it in ninety if if
(21:53):
I'm correct, I think you were the third ballplayer on
the Letterman Show. How was your experience doing the Letterman Show?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
It was great. I said something wrong and a contact
lens came out of his eye and they show it
in slow motion hitting the table. So it was a
memorable appearance.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
All right, So what's down the pipeline for you? What
do you got going on.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I'm pitching tomorrow at eleven o'clock at Burlington High School
for my baseball team thirty five and over, So I'm
still playing. You know, all I gotta do is make
it through Saturday.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And you're still appearing at some of these sports conventions, right,
signing your autographs.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, they're bringing me around more and more, but it's
I'm getting there. Basically, my fans are supporting me with
five dollars for beer, but I've used their last money
they sent me for four truck tires. You know, I
only make sixty eight hundred dollars my pension by Social Security.
I don't really need much in life. I have a
(22:56):
beautiful farm up here in Vermont. I just have trouble
getting up and cleaning out the cobwebs. I'm getting kind
of old, and you.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Know you're in Vermont. I didn't know in the past
you had some relations with Bernie Sanders, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I worked for him. I was the writer ranger. I
tried to get people to carpool to save fuel and
keep the congestion off the roads. But we only have
five hundred and twenty seven thousand people here, so you
know it wasn't well well interpreted. We all drive a
truck John there, and we pick up hitchhikers because if
we don't go freeze to death.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
And this is my last one. I'm sorry. You know,
I want to get this in. You didn't event with,
You didn't event with Johnny bench You mentioned though, what
was that about.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
He's the best, he's the smartest catcher. He's the only
one that doesn't wear the tools of ignorance.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
All right, so listen, I really appreciate your time. This
was great, This was an honor for me.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Well, thank you, thank you for having me on. Good
luck to everybody on the West Coast. I love them all. Bye.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Thanks Bill. That there, it is the legendary Bill Lee.
You just heard him trying to get him on a
few weeks ago. He's been so busy. I mean he's
traveling doing events. I saw him at a sports card
show in Massachusetts. He's still sought after. I mean, he
is what I call major League Baseball's rock star. Thank
you so much, Bill, and until next week, happy collecting
(24:26):
to all.
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