BATTERY MATES: FORMER Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee celebrates the Burlington Cardinals’ 3-1 win over the Chelsea Bat Company on Sunday at the Essex High School ballfield with his catcher for the past 13 years, former Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger.
Photo by Karl Lindholm

I was walking the dog early on a Sunday morning and I was in a bad mood.

I had already started to write my next Addy Indy column, this column, on Pete Rose — and it was not going well.

Writing about Pete Rose filled me with despair. Pete died last September at age 83. I was hoping interest in him might fade with the man.

Alas, he’s back. Our esteemed current President has taken up the cause of Pete’s Hall of Fame exclusion and anointed him a baseball martyr, a victim of the game’s do-gooders.

Birds of a feather.

My intent was to first document Pete as a contemptible human being, a martyr of no sort, a cheat, a liar, a philanderer and any number of other offenses to humanity.

Then I would discuss his shortcomings as a baseball player: he was a “one tool” player. Yes, he has more hits than anyone else ever, but also more at-bats and games played in his 24 years as a ballplayer. He was a big guy (210 pounds) who hit singles.

It takes no special skill to sprint to first base; in fact, it’s a “hot dog” move: “Charley (Superfluous) Hustle.”

So, on that Sunday morning, I was dismayed. I growled at my dog, Paco. Why was I giving more air to this fellow I found so reprehensible?

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I took it out and checked the caller ID . . . and was exultant. I said, “Hallelujah, Paco, we are delivered!”

The call was from “Bill Lee!”

Serendipity. My mood immediately lifted. “Paco, we’re gonna write about Bill Lee!”

It’s always an enjoyable exercise to report on this Red Sox left-handed ace, the “Spaceman” to some, now 78 years old.

I hadn’t seen nor heard from Bill since the last time he graced this space, 20 months ago, and have been concerned about his health. While pitching for the Savannah Bananas in August 2022, Bill collapsed, his heart stopped, first in Savannah (warming up in the bullpen) and then again in June 2023 in Indianapolis (on the mound this time). He was defibrillated and revived both times.

“Karl,” he said that recent Sunday morning, “we’re in Vergennes at 11:00. You coming?” I was glad he was apparently alive and was keen to talk with him.

He was playing again for the Burlington Cardinals in the 10-team Vermont Senior League, where he has played since its inception in 1989. It’s an over-35 league but the average age of players is between 48-54. He is the oldest player in the league, “by far!”

Bill has made Vermont his home for nearly 40 years, first living in cabins in Middlesex Notch and Greensboro Bend before buying 14 acres in 1994 in Craftsbury on a hill that looks directly east to the Common.

He likes being a lefty in the Kingdom. When asked what he especially appreciates about the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, he said “the Free Parking! I can park wherever I want. I love it. We have no traffic lights . . .  three stop signs but nobody pays any attention to ’em. I pick up every hitchhiker.”

This time of year, he tends his garden (“planting potatoes now”) and splits his own wood with a 20-pound maul. “I do something every day,” he said. “Work for 20 minutes, rest for 20 minutes, have a cuppa coffee, and go inside when the black flies come out.”

FORMER RED SOX pitcher Bill Lee of Craftsbury surveys the lake and landscape from the shore of Caspian Lake in Greensboro, ten minutes from his home. 
Photo by Karl Lindholm

“Bill, I can’t come to your game today,” I told him. “I’m going to Commencement at the College, wear the cap and gown. I’ll meet you in Vergennes after the game.”

There he was at 2:00 p.m. sitting outside 3 Squares Café in his baby blue and red Cardinals jersey and gray pants after a win against the Vergennes Codgers. “I went two innings,” he reported, “no earned runs, three hits, one K, no walks. A good outing.”

In games now, Bill comes in to relieve Cardinals starter “Johnny O,” who’s only 59. “Johnny O was the head federal drug enforcement officer in Vermont (before retiring),” he said, “and now he’s a teammate with me, a guy who was on the cover of High Times Magazine” (That’s true: July 1980).

Time was too short to cover what we wanted to cover, so we agreed to meet again in a few days at Caspian Lake in Greensboro, ten minutes from Bill’s home.

In that beautiful spot, we discussed his health after these scary episodes. Bill had been seen at a number of medical centers without finding the blockage causing the problem — that is, until he was treated at Dartmouth-Hitchcock by Dr. Hannah Chaudry. She found the blocked artery and put in a stent and sent him on his way, advising him to “be active and keep playing baseball.”

Music to his ears. “I finally found the lefty doctor I was praying for!”

Bill will be pitching again for the Savannah Bananas on July 6, coming right up, in the second game of a two-game sold-out weekend at Fenway Park. Bill Lee back in Fenway! If you haven’t been paying attention, the Bananas have become the biggest thing since Barnum and Bailey, selling out football stadiums and ballparks throughout the country.

Bill is not traveling with the Bananas, but enjoys making appearances. “I like playing for anybody,” he said. “I always answer my phone. ‘No’ is not in my vocabulary.”

Last Sunday, I took in a Senior League game at the Essex High School ballfield between the Cardinals and the Chelsea (VT) Bat Company, last year’s champs. Burlington won 3-1. It certainly looked like real baseball.

Bill DH’d in this game and had a nice line drive hit to right. He was warming up in the bottom of the ninth, but Johnny O set ‘em down 1-2-3, going the whole way.

At game’s end, I met with Bill’s batterymate on the Cardinals for the past 13 years, four-term Burlington mayor, Miro Weinberger.

He described Bill’s mound efforts as “genuine pitching. He mixes things up, pitches to locations.”

“I like that I am catching a guy who started Game Seven in a World Series.”

(Karl Lindholm Ph.D taught two baseball classes in the American Studies Program at Middlebury College. Bill Lee became his “closer,” visiting the last class as a reward to students for their earnest efforts — and never disappointed.