Bill Lee: Baseball's White Rabbit

illustration: Paul Windle

I never saw Bill Lee pitch but he has always been pretty interesting to listen to and read about. He was great in the baseball documentary by Ken Burns and during his playing days was at the heart of Red Sox/Yankees rivalry in the 70's. Paul Flannery does an incredible job of going even deeper into the man they call The Spaceman.

Here is an excerpt from his story on Bill Lee:

Bill Lee is late. There are sixteen kids, their parents, and a man named Miro who is running for mayor waiting for him on a Little League baseball field in Burlington, Vermont. The weather is unusually cold for October, and now it’s starting to rain.

Lee’s baseball life is equal parts inspiration and cautionary tale. During his fourteen-year run in the big leagues, he survived with little more than guile and a sinking fastball, and then proceeded to blow up his career for a principle. Exiled from professional baseball READ MORE