Card fact: This is a card of one of three players in major league history named Bill Lee.
What I thought about this card then: My brother had the mini card. I thought Lee looked like a stately, reserved gentleman in this photo. Boy was I wrong.
What I think about this card now: There's a lot of green on that card, both on the border and in the photo.
Other stuff: Lee's career has been well-documented because he's a media dream. He's articulate. He says wild stuff. He speaks in a humorous way. I have enjoyed him ever since he called his manager, Don Zimmer, a gerbil. I thought it was the most appropriate, hysterical characterization of someone ever. I still think it's funny.
The man who once claimed that smoking marijuana made him resistant to bus fumes while jogging to the ballpark, actually was and is a baseball traditionalist who has a great appreciation for the game to this day. A reporter at my newspaper once interviewed him for a story, and I kicked myself that I didn't get the opportunity to do it myself.
Back facts: Hey, what do you know? He's a lefty.
Lee's best seasons were the two most recent you see on this card and his 1975 season. In 1976, he was injured in a brawl with the Yankees (the one in which Lou Piniella barreled into Carlton Fisk at home plate) and lost a lot of time.
Other blog stuff: Lee's baseball-reference page is sponsored by someone who expresses a common thought that I find annoying. Yes, the Red Sox spend a bunch of money. But you can't say they're the same as the Yankees. Let the Red Sox spend a ton of money for, oh, 40 more years, and then you can say they're the same as the Yankees.
3 comments:
Over thirty years after Lee made that comment and "Gerbil" is still the first thing that pops into my head when seeing Zimmer on TV.
When I saw this pop up on the blogroll this weekend, it said "It's far out man" right above his card and I thought that was appropriate.
In my 47 years I only got three autographs. I met William at the Danbury Fair Mall and had fun conversation about shoveling chicken poop for a living lol. Cheers what a blog you have!
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