Still crazy after all these years Former Red Sox pitcher Bill ‘The Spaceman’ Lee speaks out on game seven, the A-Rod debacle, and the 2004 election BY TAMARA WIEDER

BACK WHEN he wore a Red Sox uniform, Bill "The Spaceman" Lee was nothing if not colorful. The pot-smoking, outspoken lefty, who played in Boston from 1969 through 1978, was never a typical baseball player: a rare countercultural icon in the sports world, Lee spouted Eastern philosophy, meditated, and claimed to sprinkle marijuana on his buckwheat pancakes.

In the years since 1982, when Lee was released by the Montreal Expos, it appears not much has changed. He’s still smoking pot, still as outspoken as ever, still bucking authority. He’s still pitching, and pitching well, though these days he plays in an over-50 league and admits to a season shortened by the weather conditions in Vermont, the state he now calls home.

In fact, so little has changed about Bill Lee, one can’t help but wonder, as the southpaw sits down to breakfast mid-interview, if he’s still eating those special buckwheat pancakes.

Q: So is it true that you wanted to be the next Red Sox manager?

A: Well, I didn’t want to; I thought it was inevitable for the team and for all the fans that I take the job. Because that was the only way I thought to alleviate all the problems with the curse and everything, because I guess I’m the second-winningest left-hander against the Yankees, other than Babe Ruth. I had this direct linkage, I believe, to Babe Ruth. I always wanted to be Babe Ruth, I always wanted to hit, but they made me a pitcher, and Babe Ruth started out as a pitcher and became a hitter. I felt there was always this kind of tie-in there. It’s kind of like, I don’t really want the job, but it’s like, I ran for president in ’88; I didn’t want the job, but I felt for the good of the country it was necessary to sacrifice my life for my country. These are things I do reluctantly, not out of desire or wanting to.

Q: What do you think of whom they picked, Terry Francona?

A: I think a phrenologist would lose a lot of money examining his head. But he’s a great guy. They coulda had me, but they went for the computer image. But that’s the way it goes. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. And you can lead a Red Sox fan to knowledge, but you can’t make him think.

Ah, could you do me a favor? I got my breakfast just on the table. If you could call me back in 10 minutes, we’ll continue it right back up.

[Ten minutes later ...]

Q: Are you still eating buckwheat pancakes with marijuana on them?

A: No, I’m on Atkins. I had to get my weight down. I tore up my right knee a year ago and had it operated on in December, and realized I just couldn’t handle that weight anymore. So I tried to radically change my body. But I still eat oatmeal and a few carbohydrates. I played well, I had a great year. I’m throwing very well, I’ve got pinpoint control, and I’m pretty smart, still, as a pitcher.

Q: Do you play every day?

A: Every day I can. I live in Vermont, and it’s really difficult around now. We’ve got four feet of snow on the ground, it’s warming up, and it’s going to get icy. I’ve got to sand my road, and I’ve got a two-thirds-of-a-mile driveway. It keeps me pretty busy as far as working outdoors, but it keeps me in shape, so I can’t complain. That’s why I live here. I’m one of the few Red Sox who continues to live in New England and root for those sorry guys.

Q: What did you think of the Pedro Martinez–Don Zimmer fight?

A: Oh God, it was just precious. Pedro had shock on his face. They interviewed me and I said, "It’s really hard to grab a bowling ball by its ears." I was actually very proud of him.

Q: Of Pedro?

A: No, of Zimmer! And Pedro did a great job of olé-ing the bull, not getting skewered. On both sides, I thought it was very entertaining, and I didn’t put it past that that’s Zimmer’s true colors. When they interviewed him afterwards, it upset me — I said, "Zim, there’s no crying in baseball!" It was like a Tom Hanks movie. I’m going, "C’mon, go down with the ship!"

Q: So talk to me about this year’s ALCS game seven. What would you have done differently if you’d been manager?

A: Oh, God. Everybody, they go, "Would you have taken Pedro out?" I’ve said, "Not only would I have taken him out, I’d have taken him out to dinner in Paris." I would’ve left with him. Because that was my only job I had to do. He could have gone out with a gun and shot both of them, and we would’ve won the world championship. No. You never know. It could’ve been the last act of a desperate man.

Q: Where were you watching that game?

A: You know what? I had lost a bet and had to go down, and they wanted me to watch it at the Fox studios in Dedham, and I went, no way. I said, I don’t want to be anywhere near there. So we got in the car and we drove. We got to Methuen and got to the Outback [Steakhouse] exactly at the first pitch. Everything was falling into place. I got there for the first pitch, we saw it, it was just a great game. It was just amazing. We were doing everything right, everything was going fine. We finished eating, I hadn’t been recognized, kept a low profile — everybody’s eyes were tuned to the TV, so no one was looking at anyone else. It was intense. We had first and third, nobody out, [Mike] Mussina was coming in, we paid the bill, we got in the car, and I was just saying, "God, I think we got ’em this time." And the moral of that story is, never change a barstool in the middle of a playoff game.

Q: Where were you headed?

A: I was headed home. And as I got home, it got worse and worse, and it started flurrying, and I got through Franconia Notch, and came by the deathbed of the Old Man of the Mountain, lying face-down in a heap at Franconia Notch, and then I got closer and closer to my house and he wouldn’t take him out, he wouldn’t take him out —

Q: Were you yelling at the radio?

A: Oh yeah, I was yelling at the radio. I was just dumbfounded. What got me was, Pedro did what he had to do. He tried his damnedest, he got 0-2 on everybody, but he couldn’t put anybody away. He got to what I call, it’s the mentality where you get the two strikes with such ease that you believe you can put them ’em away immediately, without nibbling and setting him up. And he went at their jugular all the time, and they kept flaring balls into the outfield. It reminded me of the ’86 World Series when the Mets came back and you could see the momentum rolling. You’ve got to get him out. You’ve got to bring in the left-hander to face the left-hander. You had them all lined up. [Mike] Timlin was throwing good. The lefty was throwing good. And you had your closers behind them in [Scott] Williamson and the other guys. I thought the stars were aligned. You spend all this time trying to establish a bullpen, and you’ve finally got it.

Q: And you don’t go to it.

A: And you don’t go to it. You look in retrospect, maybe it’s good we lost there, because I don’t think we could’ve beaten the Marlins. I thought the Yankees were not that good. And if the Red Sox could only beat them by that thin line, then I thought the Marlins were the best team in baseball.

Q: By the time this interview runs, the A-Rod deal will either have happened or not. Regardless of the outcome, what are your thoughts on that matter?

A: Right now I believe it should’ve been done, that all you had to do was go to the Players Association and say, you guys write it up the way you want it. A-Rod wants out. The only people that are really hurt here are Manny [Ramirez] and [Nomar] Garciaparra, who I don’t believe would want out, and I wouldn’t want to leave Fenway Park — I’d go kicking and screaming if I was a hitter. They don’t realize how good they had it when they were here, and I don’t believe any hitter realizes it. People that want to leave Boston, and they’re hitters, it just goes to show how dumb hitters are. As a pitcher, yeah, give me a ticket out of here, for my sanity and everything else. The fans are in such close proximity, if you’re not deaf, you’re going to be neurotic. I thought it should’ve been a done deal.

I like Manny — I mean, a lot of people hated Manny. I thought he made two great plays in the outfield that got us to the playoffs, with his relay throw off the wall without looking, he hit Garciaparra and Garciaparra threw a strike to home and the catcher made a fabulous tag, or we wouldn’t have even been worrying about getting to the World Series. It was a great season, it was very entertaining, and the drama of this winter is even spectacular. If you’re a baseball fan in New England, you shouldn’t be happier.

Q: Talk to me about the Yankees-Sox rivalry. How do you think it’s changed over the years?

A: I think it’s become more of an economic war instead of a physical war. And now that we have owners that are actually alive, now we’re able to spend. When I played there, the Red Sox owners had deep pockets and short arms. Now they’ve got deep pockets and long arms. They’ve got Bill Russell arms. They’re there, and they want to do this; they want to be the people that eliminate and change history and bring the Red Sox back to the dominant team that they were in the early 20th century.

Q: How do you feel about the salaries of today’s players? If you’d been making that kind of money, what would you have done with it?

A: Oh, I’d be dead. There’s no doubt about it, with all the bar owners I know. There’s no way I’d be alive today. So I’m actually very thankful that they waited this long to become dumb. It’s the economic system. The people who have it, have it, and the people that don’t, don’t, and it just exacerbates the two-tier system. Nothing was more demonstrated than today when they had the news that 53 percent of all Americans think Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. Which goes to show that they all shop at Wal-Mart and they all watch NASCAR. It’s a sorry state of affairs. I’d say 80 percent of the US public has their head in the sand, and the other 20 percent have their head up George W.’s ass, or they’re lip-locked on it. I’m just thankful that I only live 22 miles from Canada.

Q: Whom do you endorse for president?

A: I want [Dennis] Kucinich and [Al] Sharpton. Those are the only two that I would ever vote for. If the other ones get to the forefront, which is probably what’ll happen, then I’m typically, like I usually am, shit out of luck as far as having someone I can look up to. I was a Naderite and a McCarthyite and a Trotskyite. You can always put "ite" at the end of my name.

Q: How do you feel about the "Spaceman" nickname?

A: Well, as it’s gone down in history, it’s become very affectionate. Back when I got it, I was like Tom Wolfe who wrote the book The Right Stuff, which was a parody on Chuck Yeager saying that the space program was the wrong stuff, and that he was a true fly-by-his-pants pilot and didn’t want to become an astronaut because he called it spam in a can. So I always looked on it as kind of a joke, and when I was nicknamed the Spaceman, that’s why I wrote my autobiography The Wrong Stuff, because I wasn’t what they wanted. I was a freethinking left-hander that could throw strikes. They wanted me to throw strikes, but the thinking part was optional. They didn’t want me to voice my opinion. But now I’ve become a critic, and I’ve got my third book coming out in the baseball season coming up, and I’m writing a whole bunch of other things for other people, and people come to me now and ask me my opinion, because after 30 or 40 years, it’s become fact. It’s good. A prophet in his own time is not well-liked. I like being up on this hill because you’ve got to have a howitzer to hit me now. When I’m walking through the streets of Boston, it just takes a shiv in the ribs.

Q: What do you think is ultimately going to happen to Fenway Park?

A: Oh, it’s going to stay like it is. You’re going to have the Boston Pops playing on the top of the right-field roof between innings. It’s a jewel. It’s going to be used for American Legion tournaments. People are going to rent it and use it. It could be a money-making thing all year long. It’s a historic monument that should be treasured and rebuilt and fixed up all the time. That’s why the new owner is actually, I think he’s a good guy and we’ve got the right ownership in the right place at the right time.

Q: What are your predictions for next year?

A: I think the Red Sox will win 122 games and walk off with everything. If I had that ball club, boy — I’d die to have that ball club. I’d have them all on Pilates balls, I would have them doing whatever the big guy, [Curt] Schilling, does for his training.

Q: You appeared in a documentary about Cuban baseball. Do you still travel to Cuba?

A: Yeah. I’m sending out wedding invitations to George W. and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Fidel. We’re going to have a reconciliation tour when I get married [in Cuba]. I’ll have George W. stand up, and Laura, and the kids will love it down there ’cause beer’s a buck.

Q: What is it about baseball in Cuba that attracts you?

A: They play for nothing. They play for the love of the game. They play the old way. There’s pick-up games all the time, everywhere. They don’t have to have uniforms and be organized like we are here, and have a sponsor. It’s something that starts spontaneous, like their music. And the fact that the weather’s nice down there, it’s just nice all the time, never too hot, never too cold, and when you get a rain-out, you just go into a cabana and start dancing.

Q: What do we have to do to get rid of the curse of the Bambino?

A: You’ve got to dig Babe up, bring him back to Boston, and apologize to him. Maybe if you throw enough money at the Yankees, you can beat them at their own economic game, but does that make it right? I don’t want to do that. I want to beat them with less, I want to beat them with spirit, and I want to beat them with intellectual guile. I don’t want to beat them with the economic hammer. But that’s why I’m up here on this hill and I’m sanding my own driveway and I’m a utopian dreamer. And you can put the emphasis on, I’m dreaming in Vermont.

Tamara Wieder can be reached at twieder[a]phx.com