Customer Reviews

Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey

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Bill "Spaceman" Lee was a left-handed pitcher for the Red Sox and Expos from 1969 to 1982. He won 17 games 3 consecutive years, made the All Star game once and would have won 2 games in the classic 75 World Series (burying the Curse of the Bambino before it was invented) if the bullpen had not let him down.

Lee is better known for being one of the great characters in a game that has no more Yogi Berras, Casey Stengals or Spacemen. Some fans may take issue with his progressive politics but few can debate his continuing love for the game as he journeys from Canada to Cuba to play baseball into his late fifties. This is a unique guy who once ran for President of the United States with Hunter S. Thompson as his VP candidate and who had a song written about him by the late Warren Zevon.

I am a huge Lee fan and am not totally objectve. But I think most anyone will find this a great story about a guy with a passion for the game and for life. I would have liked to see more highlights in the film from his major league career but this was made up for by interviews with Luis Tiant, Fred Lynn, Dick Williams and fellow Buffalo Head Bernie Carbo.

Lee is a gracefully aging Baby boomer playing a kids game with a Sixties approach to life and a teenager's passion. He should be declared a National Treasure and a member of an endangered species at the same time.

I came across this dvd at a friends house and borrowed it on a whim. It turned out to be REALLY GOOD. Funny, touching and enlightening. I never knew much about Bill "Spaceman" Lee, but he is definitely one of the good guys.

Definitely worth a purchase if you like documentaries or baseball.

A fascinating documentary about a very unusual man. Probably the only professional baseball player truly to qualify as an existentialist, and a defiant one at that. Put simply the man loves baseball but hates rules.

This documentary is a great piece of work. Bill Lee's enthusiasm for both life and the game of baseball is evident throughout it.

It's obvious his teammates loved him (from the smiles on their faces as they tell stories) and that (some) management obviously didn't.

When I was in college, after Lee revealed he "used" a certain green herb, the headline in the local paper read: "Lee Smokes Yankees" :) .

And he took principled stands at personal cost. I always find that admirable.

The world needs more Bill Lee's.

Don't hate the player who loves the game ... and hates the Yankees !!

The DVD reveals former Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expo lefty Bill Lee at his best, a lover of game of baseball for all the right reasons. At the same time Lee is also very accurately presented as a man who couldn't stand the routinely cruel business of major league baseball. There's baseball, the game. And there's MLB, the industry. And they are not always alike.

If you are a Sox fan, you will always love Bill Lee, despite his wacky personality and rebellious attitude. He hates the New York Yankees, as any Sox fan would. For a Sox fan, that's all that matters. Lee won 17 games three straight years pitching in Fenway Park. After being dealt to Montreal, he won 17 again and was named as National League (Lefthanded) Pitcher of the Year.

My complaint is there's too little of Lee as a big-leaguer. Most of the film is about Lee in retirement. I recall a game he pitched after quitting the Sox after Bernie Carbo had been traded. Lee returned and pitched Boston to a win over Jim Palmer and the Baltimore Orioles in Fenway. The fans loved it. And I'd loved to have seen footage from that night in the film.

Red Sox fans will love this DVD. Yankees fan won't. And what's wrong with that ??

The DVD title sets the scene for one of the most original talented pitchers ever to play major league baseball..

Bill Lee was not only one of the most competive players ever to suitup, but the ultiment team player....

Bill Lee would go to the Wall for his friends and fellow players, in fact his outrage as to how a teamate was treated by management caused Bill Lee to be black balled and kicked out of Major League Baseball..........

I could go on, but you owe it to your self to view this DVD and discover the difference between a "winner and a loser"

George Hewitt, TV producer retired.- Author true life cowboy adventure series "Keep Spurring 'til the Whistle Blows"