Jun 16-18, 2006
Bill Lee pitched in the Majors for fourteen years and still loves the game. He wants baseball to go international, so the world series would be the World Series, for real. He wants double-headers on Sunday, nickel hot dogs and beers, no astro-turf or domed stadiums, and no designated hitters. Bill is a philosopher, a storyteller, and a coach, and he identifies with Yossarian in Catch 22. The movie of Bill’s life, when it comes out, is going to be called either Farewell to Arm or Oh, Fastball, Where Art Thou?
He has a lot to say, and will say it to us when we gather to be with him, but most of our time will be outside, playing ball and having fun. We’re not sure what will happen if 60-100 people get together for a weekend, but we want to find out. After hearing stories and getting to know each other on Friday night, on Saturday we will wake up, stretch, eat breakfast, and head outside to play ball. We will break into groups, learning the fundamentals of each position. Baseball is a science as well as a game, and Bill has been studying it all his life. He knows a lot about health, about bodies, and how to take care of them. He knows that gravity is the enemy, which is why he is so funny, but also why he likes to be in the water. Floating fights gravity
He wanted to be a Zen Buddhist, but it is hard if you start out as a Catholic, and when hating the Yankees is part of your life, it’s hard to be too spiritual. Like all as most good leftists, dislike for Yankees and Republicans go hand-in-hand, as they are both ruining our beloved planet and have nothing to do with being conservative.
Despite hating the Yankees, he has a philosophy of sport that puts friendship way ahead of competition. There is a right way to conduct yourself on the field, and it is tied in with respecting your opponent. He knows how to coach kids, and how to coach problem kids; coaching and storytelling are two of the ways he identifies himself these days. He is delighted that people seem to want to hear what he has to say. By taking care of himself, he is able to keep playing, and he’s looking forward to playing baseball with his four grandchildren pretty soon. We are looking forward to his visit and hope you will join us.
Bill “Spaceman” Lee pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 1969 to 1979 and the Montreal Expos from 1980 to 1982. Bruce Dancis called Lee, “Baseball’s all-time best Bolshevik anarchist pot-smoking hippie environmentalist New Age hurler.” The Ace from Space wrote the autobiographical The Wrong Stuff and Have Glove, Will Travel, and The Little Red (Sox) Book: A Revisionist Red Sox History. When asked why he thought this book was worthy of a Nobel Prize in Literature, Bill said, “It combines the tragedy of MacBeth with the frivolity of Where’s Waldo. It is longer than Hemingway and more fantastic than Harry Potter.” The 1988 presidential candidate for the Rhinoceros Party, he’s been called “the most subversive man ever to play baseball,” by David King. Intensely competitive, his attitude on the field was pure business; he was respected by fellow players and is one of the most popular players in Red Sox history. After the majors, he’s continued to play anywhere he could find a game, barnstorming like a modern Satchel Paige, including Cuba, where friends shot the documentary film Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey. Another video, High and Outside, is also coming out soon. Lee says, “Baseball is the belly-button of our society. Straighten out baseball and you straighten out the rest of the world,” and “You should enter a ballpark the way you enter a church.”