Lee, a 65-year-old left-hander who won a 119 games in 14 seasons for the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos, threw all nine innings for the San Rafael Pacifics - and became, according to the team, the oldest man to earn a win in a professional baseball game. He broke his own record, having won for an independent Massachusetts team at age 63.
“I just solidified myself as the best old guy on the planet,” said Lee, who attended Terra Linda High School and was mobbed by autograph-seekers after the game.
When Lee got into trouble in the fifth, allowing Maui to take a 3-0 lead, the crowd continued to roar its approval. As manager Mike Marshall, the former Dodger outfielder, came to the mound, Lee stomped, fumed, and stayed in the game. When Lee reached into his uniform, seemingly in search of a foreign substance, someone yelled, “Dig deep, Bill!”
“Taking everything into consideration, that might have been the greatest performance I’ve ever seen on a baseball field,” Marshall said. “I’m stunned. I can’t believe what I just saw.”
...Lee threw his famous Leephus pitch for strikes on occasion, blooping it in nice and slow, and then following up with fastballs. His pitch count for the night: 94, with 69 for strikes, although he struck out no one.
Cracking open a tall can of Budweiser, Lee referred to several long fly balls he allowed, and noted, “I measured that park pretty well today. I was throwing for the big part of the park.”
Lee came out for the price of his plane ticket; the only request was that there be no designated hitter, so he could bat for himself. He did that pretty well, too, singling in a run.
Repoz
Posted: August 24, 2012 at 09:24 AM |
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1. Weekly Journalist_ Posted: August 24, 2012 at 09:40 AM (#4216592)I had (and have) no idea what the Eliot Lounge is, but I loved Bill Lee as a kid and once wrote short story called "The Eliot Lounge" because of his professed desire to go there after the 1975 Series.
Bill Lee played on the '69 Red Sox with Ron Kline, whose pro career began with the Bartlesville (OK) Pirates in 1950...sixty-two years ago. (Bartlesville hasn't had a pro baseball team in sixty years.) The B-Pirates were managed by former big-leaguer Ted Gullic, who was born one hundred and five years ago, in 1907...and that year, most of the players on the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings were still alive.
Wow.
I attended Red Sox fantasy camp this year for the first time and was placed on Lee's team. A very entertaining week was had by all. His pitching motion looks exactly the same today as it was when he was in the majors. It was eerie.
http://www.amazon.com/If-Never-Get-Back-Novel/dp/1583941878
Pretty good read
I was watching part of Ken Burns' Baseball with my son a week or so ago. Lee's explanation of different pitch types, and his description of his last XBH (triple, could've been HR) before the DH rule, were fantastic.
EDIT: This game, I believe.
That's precisely how I got to know Bill Lee as a kid. I defy any 12 year old to watch that movie and not love Bill Lee.
Thirded.
Almost, sort of, disappointed in this result. I was going to go to this game with Amazing GF, but I had to prepare for a sentencing hearing this morning, and AGF had work also. Pleh.
We will instead be making our inaugural visit to the San Rafael Pacifics park on Saturday (not a euphemism), and I'm totally looking forward to it.
that would be fun
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