page_title: Bill Lee (left-handed pitcher)
section_title: Post-professional life
hierarchical_section_title: Bill Lee (left-handed pitcher) / Post-professional life
caption_attribution_description: English: Bill "Spaceman" Lee with a 2012 Boston Marathon runner at Fenway Park
context_page_description: William Francis Lee III, nicknamed "Spaceman", is an American former professional baseball left-handed pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball for the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos. On November 7, 2008, Lee was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame, as the team's record-holder for most games pitched by a left-hander and the third-highest win total by a Red Sox southpaw. On August 23, 2012, he signed a contract to play with the San Rafael Pacifics of the independent North American League, at age 65.
  In addition to his statistical baseball accomplishments, Lee is known for his counterculture behavior, his antics both on and off the field, and his use of the "Leephus pitch", a personalized variation of the eephus pitch.
  Lee has co-written four books: The Wrong Stuff; Have Glove, Will Travel; The Little Red Book: A Revisionist Red Sox History; and Baseball Eccentrics: The Most Entertaining, Outrageous, and Unforgettable Characters in the Game. In 2006, the documentary film by Brett Rapkin Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey featured Lee.
context_section_description: After the Expos released Lee in May 1982, he played for semi-professional teams, including the single-season Senior Professional Baseball Association in Florida, largely composed of retired major leaguers. He played in Venezuela, and starting in 1984 he lived in Moncton, New Brunswick, where he played first base and pitcher for the Moncton Mets, earning $500 per week. That year, he published his first autobiographical book, The Wrong Stuff.
  In 1988, he and his second wife, Pamela, announced plans to move to Burlington, Vermont. In 1987, he had announced plans to run for President of the United States for the Rhinoceros Party, which necessitated the move. Since then he has played mostly as a celebrity pitcher in games around the world.
  Since 1999, Lee has been an ambassador for Major League Baseball to Cuba helping to bring Cuban players to the US and setting up goodwill tours especially to Canada.
  In 2007, Lee joined former major league players Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, Marquis Grissom, Delino DeShields, and Ken Ryan on the Oil Can Boyd's Traveling All-Stars. In June 2008, Lee pitched for the Alaska Goldpanners during the annual Midnight Sun ball game played at night during the Summer Solstice.
  In September 2010, Lee pitched ​5 ²⁄₃ innings for the Brockton Rox (a team that was then a member of the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball), picking up the win. The win made him the oldest pitcher to appear in or to win a professional baseball game.
  On October 8, 2011, Lee participated in the "100 Innings of Baseball Game" hosted by the Boston Amateur Baseball Network to raise money for ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). On August 23, 2012, Lee pitched a nine-inning complete game for the San Rafael Pacifics in San Rafael, California, beating the Na Koa Ikaika Maui 9–4. Using a homemade bat in the fifth inning, he drove in the first run of the game for the Pacifics. Lee was signed to a one-day contract by Pacifics' President and General Manager Mike Shapiro. Lee's bat and uniform were donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame following the game as the start gave him the record for the oldest pitcher to make a starting appearance, pitch a complete game and also to earn a win in a professional baseball game.
  Lee lives in northern Vermont with his third wife.  He is also a regular on Melnick in the Afternoon with Mitch Melnick at TSN 690 sports radio in Montreal in a segment called "Answers from Space". In 2007, Lee was featured in High Times, a counterculture, pro-marijuana magazine. He also makes frequent appearances on Sports Overnight America, a nationally syndicated radio program hosted by Gerrie Burke (a long-time friend) out of San Francisco.
  He is also a regular coach/pro at the annual Red Sox Baseball Fantasy Camp run by the Red Sox Organization in Florida at the team's Spring Training Facility.
  Lee was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2000.
  Lee recently released his own wine label, "Spaceman Red" wine, a California syrah, cabernet and petite sirah blend, produced with winemaker friend Geoff Whitman, and distributed in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire.  In 2004, he released a beer in partnership with Vermont's Magic Hat Brewing Company. Called Spaceman Ale, it is no longer in production.
caption: Lee at Fenway Park with a 2012 Boston Marathon runner
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "COOLPIX S4100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "COOLPIX S4100V1.0", "Image DateTime": "2011:02:21 21:15:14", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "234", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "58216", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3452", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:02:21 21:15:14", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:02:21 21:15:14", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "17/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "23/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4320", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3240", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "58092", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "26", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Portrait", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}