DATE: JULY 6, 2025
HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, Arkansas — Bill “Spaceman” Lee, the Major League pitcher who achieved fame not only for his skills throwing a baseball but also for his often-hilarious observations about baseball and the world around him, has joined the roster of legends who will highlight the Eighth Hot Springs Baseball Weekend August 8 – 9.
“Bill Lee is still as fascinating a character as he was in his days pitching for the Boston Red Sox and the Montreal Expos,” Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison said. “He’s just as funny and observant as he always was, and he’ll have the Baseball Weekend fans rolling on the floor.”
“The 2025 Baseball Weekend will feature five great stars: Bret Saberhagen, Bill Lee, Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, Al Hrabosky and Steve Garvey,” Arrison said. “Lee, Saberhagen and Garvey will be greeting fans in Hot Springs for the first time and Bench and Hrabosky will be back by popular demand.
“Unfortunately, Goose Gossage, who has become a staple of our Baseball Weekend lineup, has to bow out this year because of a scheduling conflict.”
“The whole Baseball Weekend of baseball fun is free and open to the public, and we expect that 2024’s great turnout will be exceeded.”
Bill Lee became famous as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and the Montreal Expos.
Lacking a good fastball, Lee developed off-speed pitches, including a variation of the eephus pitch, which he called his Leephus pitch or Space Ball. The eephus pitch follows a high, arcing trajectory and is very slow.
Lee was used almost exclusively as a relief pitcher during the first four years of his career in the early 1970s. During that period, Lee appeared in 125 games, starting in nine, and compiled a 19–11 record. In 1973, he was used primarily as a starting pitcher. He started 33 of the 38 games in which he appeared and went 17–11 with a 2.95 earned run average, and was named to the American League All-Star team. He followed 1973 with two more 17-win seasons.
He started two games in the 1975 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. He left both the second and seventh games with the lead, although the Red Sox lost both games and the Series. He gave up a two-run home run to Tony Perez on an eephus pitch with a three-run lead in the sixth inning of Game 7.
On May 20 of the 1976 season, Lee started a game against the New York Yankees, pitching six innings, and the Red Sox won 8–2. However, the game is remembered for the final out of the sixth, when Lou Piniella of the Yankees was tagged out at home by Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk. On the play, Piniella ran into Fisk, who was blocking home plate. The collision between Piniella and Fisk instigated a fight between the two players resulting in a bench-clearing brawl, during which Lee suffered a torn ligament in his pitching shoulder. Lee missed almost two months of the season and finished with a 5–7 record.
During the 1978 season, Lee and Red Sox manager Don Zimmer engaged in an ongoing public feud over the handling of the pitching staff. Lee’s independence and iconoclastic nature clashed with Zimmer’s old-school, conservative personality. Lee and a few other Red Sox formed what they called “The Buffalo Heads” as a response to the manager. Zimmer then relegated Lee to the bullpen, and management traded Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins and Bernie Carbo. Lee threatened to retire after his friend Carbo was traded; he subsequently referred to Zimmer as “the gerbil”, which proved to be the last straw. Lee briefly left the Red Sox after pitching in a 10–9 win at home over California on June 12 but returned a few days later; however, during the home stretch, when the Red Sox were battling the Yankees for the pennant, Zimmer refused to pitch Lee. The Red Sox lost the pennant in a one-game playoff with the Yankees.
Lee was traded at the end of 1978 to the Montreal Expos for Stan Papi, a utility infielder. Lee bade farewell to Boston by saying, “Who wants to be with a team that will go down in history alongside the ’64 Phillies and the ’67Arabs?”
Lee won 16 games for the Expos in 1979 while being named The Sporting News National League Left Hander of the Year (over Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton). His professional career ended in 1982, when he was released by the Expos after staging a one-game walkout as a protest over Montreal’s decision to release second baseman and friend Rodney Scott.
Lee’s personality earned him popularity as well as the nickname “Spaceman,” given to him by former Red Sox infielder John Kennedy. His outspoken manner and unfiltered comments were frequently recorded in the press. Lee spoke in defense of China, population control, Greenpeace,[4] and school busing in Boston,[4] among other things. He berated an umpire for a controversial call in the 1975 World Series, threatening to bite off his ear and encouraging the American people to write letters demanding the game be replayed. When asked about his views on mandatory drug testing, Lee quipped: “I’ve tried just about all of them, but I wouldn’t want to make it mandatory.” In his 1984 book, The Wrong Stuff, he claimed his marijuana use made him impervious to bus fumes while jogging to work at Fenway Park.[13] Much of the material in this book is, however, tongue-in-cheek.
Baseball fans get a grand slam homer this year when the 2025 Hot Springs Baseball Weekend and the Babe Ruth World Series coincide in the city known as The Birthplace of Major League Baseball Spring Training.
“Some of the greatest former players in the game and the best of the young players will be in Hot Springs at the same time,” Arrison said. “Fans will get to interact with legends like crowd favorite Johnny Bench and newcomers Bill Lee, Bret Saberhagen and Steve Garvey and at the same time have the opportunity to watch the best 14-year-old players in the world compete at our great Majestic Park complex, where The Babe himself once played and practiced.”
The Babe Ruth World Series for 14-year-olds will take place August 7 – 16 at Hot Springs’ Majestic Field baseball complex.
In addition to Lee, Baseball Weekend’s lineup of guest stars will include:
• Bret Saberhagen was a right-handed starting pitcher who played for the Kansas City Royals, New York Mets, Colorado Rockies and Boston Red Sox from 1984 through 1999, and a comeback in 2001. Known for his blazing fastball and pinpoint control, Saberhagen was named a three-time All-Star, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, a Gold Glove Award winner, and the Most Valuable Player of the 1985 World Series, when the Royals beat the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. He led Major League Baseball in wins and earned run average in 1989, and threw a no-hitter in 1991.
• Steve Garvey played first base for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres from 1969 to 1987. He began his major league career with the Dodgers in 1969. He won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1974 and was the National League Championship MVP in 1978. Garvey was also a member of the 1981 World Series-winning Dodgers. Garvey signed with the Padres in December 1982 and remained with the team until 1987, when his playing career ended. In 1984, Garvey was once again named a National League Championship Series MVP; he hit a dramatic walk-off home run to win Game Four of the Championship Series for the Padres. Garvey was a National League All-Star for 10 seasons, with nine selections as starter at first base, a mark that still stands for his position. He holds the NL record for consecutive games played with 1,207. The Padres retired Garvey’s No. 6 in 1988. He was placed on the 2024 ballot for induction into the Hall of Fame this fall.
They will be joined by Johnny Bench and Al Hrabosky.
Johnny Bench played his entire career, which lasted from 1967 to 1983, with the Cincinnati Reds, primarily as a catcher. Bench was the leader of the Reds team known as the Big Red Machine that dominated the National League in the mid-1970s, winning six division titles, four National League pennants and two World Series championships. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1989.
Al Hrabosky is now known as Mister Baseball Weekend after attending every one of the annual celebrations except last year’s, when he was absent due to family obligations.
He is one of the St. Louis Cardinals’ most beloved players — the Mad Hungarian relief pitcher.
“Al has been a featured guest at every one of our Baseball Weekends except 2023,” Arrison said. “The hundreds of fans who have attended his presentations have loved his tales of Major League Baseball.” Hrabosky is part of the Cardinals television team and began working as a commentator on telecasts for the team in 1985. He will be inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in September.
For more information call Steve Arrison at 501-321-2027.