Ground control to Major Tom

Here’s a great piece from the Boston Phoenix on the ever-quotable Bill Lee, who’s out promoting his book Have Glove Will Travel. Here’s his take on the remodeling of Fenway Park:

“I love it. Remarkable. I’ve always wanted the Boston Pops to play in the right-field corner, up on that veranda. But they put a bar up there instead, and that’s the second-best thing.”

It’s always fun to hear the Spaceman, and now that he’s got to make his publicity rounds, there’s bound to be some quotable quotes. And there’s often some wisdom or thinking behind them - here’s his take on steroids, noting that there were lots of legit stuff that he was on:

I was so juiced up—with Butazone and all those blood-thinning agents and painkillers—that while I could pitch in the American League, I couldn’t have run the Kentucky Derby.

Still, the game wasn’t tainted by steroids. I don’t look at that as tainted. After all, Ponce de Leon came ashore here looking for the Fountain of Youth. (Newsweek)

Truly a character - spacey, erudite, and often both at the same time. My favourite Bill Lee quote? There are lots to choose from, but it’s got to be one of these two:

“The other day they asked me about mandatory drug testing. I said I believed in drug testing a long time ago. All through the Sixties I tested everything.”

“I think about the cosmic snowball theory. A few million years from now the sun will burn out and lose its gravitational pull. The earth will turn into a giant snowball and be hurled through space. When that happens it won’t matter if I get this guy out.”

That second one always reminds me of Woody Allen’s “universe is expanding” bit in Annie Hall.