'The more I play, the better I feel': Pitcher Bill (Spaceman) Lee continues to thrive at 75

To get a sense of what infamous left-handed pitcher Bill (Spaceman) Lee is up to these days, look no further than a video of him in the stands at a baseball game that went viral last month.

Lee, in a Savannah Bananas uniform, descends the stairs with a beer in hand, and makes his way onto the field. After a few warm-up stretches that include a high kick, he takes to the mound and under the flash of lightning, the 75-year-old strikes out the batter.

The video clearly resonated with baseball fans, both because Lee is a towering character in baseball and because he struck out a player much younger than him.

Lee said he was recently celebrating his father's 102nd birthday in Fayetteville when he was recognized by a fan.

"At the reception, we were walking through a brewery and I had a beer in my hand and some guy sees my banana hat and he goes, 'Are you the guy that walked out of the stands with that beer?' and I go, 'Still got it in my hand,'" he told Day 6 host Peter Armstrong.

As for the players he's pitching against?

"ESPN asked me, they said, 'Bill, how do you get these kids out?' And I said, 'They just don't make kids like they used to.'"

The raconteur has had a storied career in baseball, known as much for his signature pitching style as he is for adventures off the mound.

Lee played for the Boston Red Sox and the Montreal Expos in Major League Baseball, his career stretching from 1969 to 1982. He was later named to the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2008 for holding the record for the most games pitched by a left-handed player: 321 games in all. 

After his time in the major leagues, Lee played ball in Canada and Venezuela, wrote four books, created his own wine, and was the subject of a biopic starring Josh Duhamel.

In 1988, he claimed he was running for president of the United States as a member of the satirical Rhinoceros Party, despite the fact that the party is Canadian. In 2016, he ran for governor of Vermont with the slogan: "We're so left, we're right."

But he loves baseball most of all, with a poetic passion.

"It's the harbinger of spring. It's the first robin; it's the first blade of grass," he said. 

"It's the first time you take the plow off your truck. It's the first time you can go out with your kids, and that's what baseball is. It's Persephone and, you know, leaving Hades."

How Lee joined the Bananas

The Savannah Bananas are a team in the Coastal Plain League in the United States, a collegiate summer baseball league with 15 teams across Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Most of the players are in their 20s.

Bananas owner Jesse Cole said he grew up in Massachusetts and followed Bill Lee's career, even interviewing him while Cole was in high school.

"As soon as we started getting a plan for this year's tour, my parents found his number and I gave him a call, left a voicemail," Cole recalled. "He called me back and I was just telling him what we're doing, he goes, 'I'm in! I'll be there.' And I haven't even told him at the point exactly what we're doing."

Cole was talking about both how the team plays the game — fast — as well as the Bananas' unique approach to entertainment.

That includes a dancing umpire, a seniors' dance team called the Banana Nanas, a breakdancing coach, a male cheerleading team called the Man-Nanas, a banana princess called Princess Potassia, the Banana Pep Band and a magician.

Cole himself wears a yellow tuxedo with a ruffled shirt and a yellow top hat to the games.

"It's like being with P.T. Barnum and Barnum and Bailey Circus, the greatest show on Earth," said Lee.

While Lee still lives in Vermont, Cole says they fly him down for games every weekend, wherever the team is playing.

Offering advice

When Lee made his debut with the team he was driven across the field in a yellow pedicab by one of the Man-Nanas wearing a Star Wars Boba Fett helmet painted yellow.

While Lee is older than many of his teammates by about 50 years, that hasn't stopped him from winning them over with his stories.

"He's seen it. He's been there. And he fits in very well with the guys," said Cole. "He's just one of the guys in the locker room and everyone loves him."

Lee, though, likes to see himself as the team's elder who dispenses advice and wisdom. 

"They sit at the back of the bus and they think I'm Buddha. Who happened to be a hell raiser when he started," said Lee.  

But he doesn't think that his age holds him back at all.

"The more I play, the better I feel," he said.

Written by Andrea Bellemare. Interview produced by Laurie Allan.