Montreal Gazette: Riding with the Spaceman

Wadda ride with Bill Lee! More fun than a mesced-up Mint 400 off-road motorbike race!

As Bill Lee often says, it’s about the journey, not the destination. And the crowning achievement of the former Expos pitcher’s rather eventful journey may very well be a planned feature film about his life.

Have Glove, will Travel is scheduled to start shooting next year. Filmmaker Brett Rapkin has already written the script, adapted from two Lee biographies.

This week, Rapkin and Lee, along with Lee’s wife Diana, daughter Anna, and two attachés from the City of Montreal’s film and television office, toured the city scouting film locations.

...9: 30 a.m.: Gibbys Restaurant, Old Montreal

“Unbelievable place. Could be a great place (in the movie) where I break up with my wife. When she gives me the boot. She took all three kids. But she left me with my shotguns and the Volkswagen camper. And the Salvador Dali paintings.”

...1: 05 p.m.: Brasserie 77 (now the “99”).

...“I had four beers. After the game got close, and I knew they needed a left-handed reliever because they had used (Woodie) Fryman, I came back to the ballpark. I only had four beers. I wasn’t lit, I was perfect. That’s the way I played.

“Hell, I beat Catfish Hunter after having seven beers.”