Former Red Sox pitcher Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee is running for governor of Vermont
And he's doing it on the ticket of Bernie Sanders's old political party.
During his pitching career for the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos, Bill “Spaceman” Lee was always known for his off-speed stuff.
But this here is quite a curveball.
According to documents filed with Vermont Secretary of State’s office, the eccentric lefty he is running for governor of the Green Mountain State as the Liberty Union Party candidate. It’s the same ticket on which Sen. Bernie Sanders ran on in the 1970s, while Lee was throwing eephuses at Fenway Park.
Lee told WCAX he describes himself as “a pragmatic, conservative, forward thinker.” His platform includes the legalization and taxation of marijuana in Vermont, single-payer healthcare, and bringing the Expos back to Montreal.
In his interview with WCAX, the 69-year-old said he had championed the ideas of Sanders, his fellow Vermonter, before the Democratic presidential candidate’s popularity took off.
“You get what you pay for, if you want change, you vote for Sanders or me. I’m Bernie-heavy, I’m not Bernie-lite. My ideas were before Bernie,” said Lee. “If you want to see money come down from the 2 percent, we’re going to need umbrellas when I’m elected, because it’s going to be raining dollars.”
(After multiple failed gubernatorial and senate bids, it wasn’t until Sanders left the Liberty Union Party and ran as an independent that he was elected into office.)
Lee also compared Republicans to pterodactyls and suggested that if Donald Trump was elected, he would move out of the country and “take Vermont with us.”
After Lee’s colorful MLB career ended in 1982, Lee toured the United States, Venezuela, and Canada playing for several semi-pro baseball teams.
Pitching for the independent Brockton Rox at the age of 63 in 2010, Lee became the oldest pitcher to earn a win in a professional baseball game. In 2012, at the age of 65, he broke his own record with a complete-game victory for the independent San Rafael Pacifics.
In 1988, Lee ran for president on the ticket of the American wing of Canada’s satirical Rhinoceros Party under the slogan, “No guns. No Butter. They’ll both kill you.”
According to the Chicago Tribune, his platform also included outlawing baseball’s designated hitter, AstroTurf, and domed stadiums. Lee also said his presidential cabinet would include civil rights activist Dick Gregory, scientist Carl Sagan, and Larry Bird.
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