Bill Lee (left-handed pitcher)

William Francis Lee III (born December 28, 1946), nicknamed "Spaceman", is an American former professional baseball left-handed pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox (1969–1978) and Montreal Expos (1979–1982).

Lee attended and played baseball at Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, California, graduating in 1964 before enrolling at the University of Southern California (USC).

From 1964 to 1968, majoring in physical education and geography, Lee attended USC, where he played for Rod Dedeaux.

Lee was part of the Trojans team, which won the 1968 College World Series, and was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 22nd round of the 1968 Major League Baseball Draft.

Lee served in the US Army Reserve for six years during the Vietnam War.

One of his jobs was to process the dead soldiers from New England and call the families.

He was also a chemical, radiation, and biological officer for the 1173rd and earned Soldier of the Cycle at Fort Polk, Louisiana.

Lee is a Rastafarian and a former Catholic.

He is married to Canadian-born Diana Donovan.

Lacking a good fastball, Lee developed off-speed pitches, including a variation of the Eephus pitch.

The Leephus pitch or Space Ball, the names for Lee's take on the eephus pitch, follows a high, arcing trajectory and is very slow.

Lee is the last Red Sox player to miss time during the season for his military obligation after being on active duty in the Army Reserve from June 1 to October 1, 1970.

Lee was used almost exclusively as a relief pitcher during the first four years of his career.

During that period, Lee appeared in 125 games, starting in nine, and compiled a 19–11 record.

In 1973, he was used primarily as a starting pitcher.

He started 33 of the 38 games in which he appeared and went 17–11 with a 2.95 Earned Run Average, and was named to the American League All-Star team.

He followed 1973 with two more 17-win seasons.

He started two games in the 1975 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

He left both the 2nd and 7th games with the lead, although the Red Sox lost both games and the Series.

He gave up a two-run home run to Tony Perez on an eephus pitch with a three-run lead in the sixth inning of Game 7.

On May 20 of the 1976 season, Lee started a game against the New York Yankees, pitching six innings, and the Red Sox won 8–2.

However, the game is remembered for the final out of the sixth, when Lou Piniella of the Yankees was tagged out at home by Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk.

On the play, Piniella ran into Fisk who was blocking home plate.

The collision between Piniella and Fisk instigated a fight between the two players resulting in a bench-clearing brawl, during which Lee suffered a torn ligament in his pitching shoulder.

Lee missed almost two months of the season and finished with a 5–7 record.

During the 1978 season, Lee and Red Sox manager Don Zimmer engaged in an ongoing public feud over the handling of the pitching staff.

Lee's independence and iconoclastic nature clashed with Zimmer's old-school, conservative personality.

Lee and a few other Red Sox formed what they called "The Buffalo Heads" as a response to the manager.

Zimmer then relegated Lee to the bullpen, and management traded Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins and Bernie Carbo.

Lee threatened to retire after his friend Carbo was traded; he subsequently referred to Zimmer as "the gerbil", which proved to be the last straw.

Lee briefly left the Red Sox after pitching in a 10–9 win at home over California on June 12 but returned a few days later; however, during the home stretch, when the Red Sox were battling the Yankees for the pennant, Zimmer refused to pitch Lee.

In 2006, the Brett Rapkin documentary film Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey featured Lee.

Lee was born in Burbank, California, into a family of former semipro and professional baseball players.

His grandfather William Lee was an infielder for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League, and his aunt Annabelle Lee was a pitcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

"She was the best athlete in the family", Lee said.

"She taught me how to pitch."

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 (321) and the third highest win total by a Red Sox southpaw (94).

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 (Sox) Book: A Revisionist Red Sox History; and Baseball Eccentrics: The Most Entertaining, Outrageous, and Unforgettable Characters in the Game.