"William Francis Lee is my brother from another mother."-Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins
"Bill is an avid reader and thoughtful, and yes, he was full of shit a lot, but who cared? He was a great character and a great competitor, but also a complete ballplayer." -Dan Shaughnessy - Boston Globe
"Bill who?" -Hall of Famer Carlton "Pudge" Fisk
Don't be disturbed by what you are about to read here. The Spaceman Chronicles is not trying to be your typical sports biography.
There isn't anything typical about Bill "Spaceman" Lee anyway, is there? He is a veteran Baseball Player, Free Spirit, Candidate, Ambassador, Father, Eccentric, Husband, Rebel, and original Buffalo Head, all wrapped loosely together by the 108 nylon seams of a round, white baseball.
Told by equally eccentric author Scott Russell in a wholly non-linear way, inspired by the disconnected scenes from a Kurt Vonnegut novel, Lee's tales are shared sideways, backwards, and upside-down, recounting stories and anecdotes that only Lee himself could muster. Seemingly travelling back and forth through time as Lee himself lived each moment, The Spaceman Chronicles offers one bizarre chapter after the other, one for each of his 119 major league wins, as only the Spaceman could have observed, experienced, and survived them. Yet somehow, in the end, it inexplicably all makes perfect sense this way-unstuck in time.
The Spaceman Chronicles reads like a Bill Lee-pitched inning. Nothing straight, everything on the move, an occasional looping 'Leephus' pitch, and even a sneaky surprise fastball at the knees to push you back and stand you up straight. And the only promise is that every short tale begins with a high leg kick from the left side, and when you're done, you'll feel a hell of a lot closer to the Spaceman than 60 feet 6 inches.
