On this date in 1969, 22 year-old Bill Lee made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox. It was the second game of a double header at Fenway against the Cleveland Indians. The Indians scored five runs in the top of the 3rd to take a 6-3 lead. It was a freaky inning. Against starter Mike Nagy and reliever Vincente Romo the Indians recorded this sequence after a pop up for the first out:
Walk
Single (Pop fly)
Single (Pop fly)
Walk
Walk
Walk
Walk
Sacrifice Fly
Lee came in to pitch the top of the 4th and remained through the seventh. A bit nervous he walked the first two hitters, got the third to hit into a double play, and struck out the fourth.
Over four innings he gave up only two hits, one run, and got two double plays. The unusual thing was that he had 5 Ks. For the year he struck out 45 in 52 innings, very different from most of his career. In 1974 he pitched 285 innings, winning 17 games, but only striking out 76.
Bill went on to pitch in the majors for the Sox through 1978 and then for the Expos until 1982, winning 110 games. At his peak from 1971 through 1975 he had two outstanding years as a reliever and then won 17 games for three years in a row. He was also one of the most entertaining pitchers to watch, throwing a variety of off-speed pitches including the notorious eephus which, unfortunately, he chose to throw to Tony Perez in game seven of the 1975 World Series. Perez, who'd been sitting on the pitch, hit it into Kenmore Square.
Always a competitor on the mound, he was a complete eccentric off it, always good for a quote, gaining the nickname Spaceman. I sat with a hammered Lee in a Cambridge bar in 1978 as he told very funny stories.
He also had the honor of having Warren Zevon write a song about him.
Bill's life has also been made into a biopic.
Since he finished with the majors, he's spent much of the past 40 years pitching for independent league teams, most recently the Savannah Bananas.
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