Legend of the Last Frontier: Bill "Spaceman" Lee

In the mid 60's, the Goldpanners launched a personality into orbit that still hasn't landed.

Photo courtesy of Goldpanners.com

I won't dance around the issue here. Bill Lee is quite possibly my favorite baseball player of all time, and was so before I even knew that he was a Goldpanner. You might have got a hint of that since I'm always keeping tabs on him in the Odds & Ends section, but anyway, I'm not entirely sure why that is. Maybe it's because he's in his 60's and he's still making appearances on mounds (amateur and pro) from Fairbanks, Alaska to Santiago de Cuba. Maybe it's because he took the eephus pitch, made it even more ridiculous than it already was, and named it the "Leephus". Maybe it's because he smoked copious amounts of dope and didn't care what anyone thought about it. He's just one of those guys that's so larger-than-life, you either love him or you hate him.

Of course, that's not to say that he wasn't (or should I say, isn't) a good pitcher. With a career 3.62 ERA and 119 wins to 90 losses at the major league level, he definitely wasn't bad. With the Goldpanners in '66 he posted a 1.35 ERA with 58 strikeouts in 60.1 IP, mostly in relief; in '67 he 7-4 with a 2.25 ERA and 83K's in 84 innings as a starter. But he was known as much for his free spirit as for his success on the mound.

Lee didn't have very good velocity on his fastball, so instead of trying to throw hard, he tried to throw really slow. That's where the "Leephus" comes in. For those of you who don't know, the Eephus pitch (or, in this case, the Leephus) is essentially the change-up from hell. The pitch was invented by Rip Sewell back in the 40's, is typically thrown about 50 miles per hour and is basically just lobbed up to the plate with a nice "rainbow" throw. This pitch was surprisingly successful, but it cost Lee and the Red Sox the 1975 World Series when he gave up a two-run homer off the pitch in game seven.