On August 23, 2012, Bill “Spaceman" Lee became the oldest player to pitch in a professional baseball game.
The lefty enjoyed a 13-year Major League career in which he racked up 119 wins despite lacking a big league-caliber heater. His bread-and-butter pitch, which he cleverly named the Leephus, had a cartoonish arc that fooled batters simply because they couldn’t time when it would fall to the strike zone.
However, the Spaceman is known more for his anti-establishment tendencies than his swing-and-miss rate. He clashed with managers, owners and teammates and allied with politics and philosophies considered counterculture even for the 1970’s.
The Bill Lee saga is equal parts compelling and confusing. The best part for all of us? That even at age 68, it continues. Spaceman pitched a complete game for the Independent League San Rafael Pacifics this summer, returning to a city he called home in his youth - and a city that embraces their offbeat, flawed hero.
I visited Albert Field in San Rafael and talked with Gary Burns, a city official who has known Spaceman the player and Bill Lee the man for years. Check out this impromptu interview we put together.