I took a break from preparing for my road trips this month by going out with a few friends to see a minor league baseball game. It sounded like it could be fun as former major league pitcher Bill "The Spaceman" Lee was going to be pitching for the hometeam Rox in Brockton, Massachusetts. Lee is noted for being a little bit out there with his approach to baseball and to life. The fact that he last pitched in the majors in 1982 and was of the young age of 63 didn't deter people from coming to the small ballpark.The game had to be delayed 20 minutes as last minute ticket sales created a jam at the stadium. It also didn't help that they were short staffed at the ballpark. Many minor league teams have interns help them out through the summer, but with many of them going back to college the Rox were forced to have only 1 gate to allow people into the ball yard.
The ballgame was sold out and it definitely had a carnival atmosphere. Most of the fans there had grown up watching Lee pitch for the Red Sox or their parents taking them to the game had seen him pitch. When he first went out to the mound he looked like someone that was in his 60's as he slowly walked to the mound. But once he was on there, he pitched as well as anyone else in the ballpark.
Lee was pitching to help out a charity about autism. It was a gimmick but it would be interesting to see how he fared against players 40 years younger than him. The Rox were in the playoff hunt so they were risking a bit going with the ageless lefthander and at first it looked like they might have gambled and lost. Lee's first pitch was an eephus pitch which the batter promptly slapped into centerfield for a lead-off basehit. But using an array of slow stuff and with what looked like a surprisingly swift fastball he was able to pitch 5 1/3 innings giving up 2 runs.
Lee even batted 3 times and each time he grounded out and you can see how much of an effort it was for him to run to first base. At one point in the game a Worcester Tornadoes player hit a grounder to firstbase. Lee ran as hard as he could to cover the bag but the firstbaseman was able to make the play by a step. The Brockton manager then came out to talk to Lee and since the pitcher still had his command on the mound we wondered why the manager would come out. But it soon became evident that it was to give Lee a breather for running to firstbase.
Lee was quite impressive. He kept changing speeds and the timing of the visitors were so out of whack that they consistently pulled the ball foul or hit lazy flyball outs. Brockton was able to put quite a few runs on the board and was able to make Lee the oldest pitcher to win a professional baseball game.
To say the least it was really a fun time but unfortunately no food to write about. Due to the large crowd and the lack of help at the ballpark, the concession lines were long and I wasn't going to miss Lee play. The guy sitting next to me went out to get 2 beers around the 2nd inning and didn't show up again until after Lee had left the game in the 6th inning. What was the point of coming to the game then?
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