Chewing liquorice: Bill Lee

Monday, February 21, 2011

A few of les Expos and some 'Cool Heat'.

Ross Grimsley celebrated his 20 win season for the Expos by having a bath. Unfortunately 'Scuzz' washed off the magic, and never regained his form.

Andre Nolan Dawson. Andre only hit .244 off of Nolan Ryan, with 25 K's in 89 PA.

2 players the Expos should have hung onto. Ken Singleton and Cliff Floyd.

A little (almost) recycled photo action from Larry Walker. Definitely the same play.

Floyd Youmans and Bill Lee. Floyd iffa coulda shoulda woulda been a mega-star. Unfortunately it didn't pan out. I remember in his big break out season, the Expos broadcasters in Canada, TSN, ran a nickname contest for Floyd. Ken Singleton was the colour man (and an extremely good one), and he got to do the interview with Floyd where Floyd chose his new nickname. He chose 'Cool Heat'. Which is a good name for something you rub on a sore muscle, but not really a great nickname for a pitcher. It never caught on. My entry was 'K-Yo'. I was very disappointed it didn't get picked.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Bill 'Spaceman' Lee. Autographed ball and other stuff.

Bill Lee was and is a classic baseball character. Lots has been written about him, and if you don't know who he is I'm sure you can find a ton of great info very easily.

My encounter with the legend occurred in 1994 at a Legends game in Vancouver. It was Legends vs the local fire or police (or both).

The major league was out of action, and it was getting to the crunch time where even if they did want to continue the season, it might have been difficult to do so. So when the Legends came to Vancouver, it was worth going to check it out.

My main purpose was to meet Mr. Lee, and I brought my copy of 'The Wrong Stuff', and a ball and some cards. And Bill was fantastic, he happily signed everything, was super friendly with everyone, and even chatted about the chances of the season starting again. For the record, he said there was no way they'd fix it in time.

After the game the beers were flowing pretty well for all the players. As I recall along with Bill there was Dave Cash and Ozzie Virgil, George Foster had been rumored but didn't show. I'm sure there were some other guys, but hey, it was 16 years ago!

At Vancouver's Nat Bailey Stadium in 1994.

I had to specifically request that he sign the ball on the sweet spot, he also signed the inside of my book jacket with a nice inscription.