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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357092
EAN num: 9780307339782
ISBN number: 0307339785
Label: Three Rivers Press
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: May 23, 2006
Publishing house: Three Rivers Press
Release Date: May 23, 2006
Sale Popularity Level: 65439
Studio: Three Rivers Press
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Product Description:
The return of a sports classic with a new foreword by the author
Finally back in print after many years, here is Bill Lee’s classic tale of his renegade life on and off the mound. Whether walking out on the Montreal Expos to protest the release of a valued teammate or telling sportswriters eager for candid and offbeat comments more about the game than his bosses wanted anyone to know, pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee became celebrated as much for his rebellious personality as for his remarkable talent. Add to the mix his affinity for Eastern religions and controversial causes, and you can see why Lee infuriated the establishment while entertaining his legion of fans.
In this wildly funny memoir that became a massive bestseller in the United States and Canada when it was very first published, Lee recounts the colorful story of his life—from the drugged-out antics of his college days at USC (where he learned that “marijuana never hammered me like a good Camel”) to his post–World Series travels with a group of liberal long-distance runners through Red China (where he discovered that conservatives don’t like marathons because “it’s much easier to climb into a Rolls-Royce”). Lee also describes his minor league days, joining the Reserves during the Vietnam War, his time with the Red Sox, and the 1975 World Series. He spares no detail while recalling his infamous falling-out with Red Sox management that led to his trade to Montreal.
Full of irreverent wit, and an inherent love of the game, The Wrong Stuff is a sports classic for a new generation.
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Rated by buyers 
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Back years ago (more than thirty), Sports Illustrated ran a story on Bill Lee, showing his no-famous picture of pitching with a space suit on. The story was the very first I had read about Lee, and my very first exposure to Warren Zevon, as Lee called himself an excitable boy. For SI to be somewhere in the vicinity of the cutting edge of pop culture, I am quite grateful, as I became a fan of both. Unfortunately, I am guessing, their careers fell victim to the SI curse. Bill Lee was a talented and prolific winner with the Red Sox in the mid-1970s, an outspoken individual on any number of subjects, and a likable man who has never stopped being a baseball fan. In his best decade, when tell-all books were all the rage, this was his effort, and a fine one it was. But behind the successes and the long decline leading to his continuous unemployment by baseball, I sort of sense that he went from singing "Excitable Boy" or quoting Warren Zevon to being the "Excitable Boy" character, or a character from a Warren Zevon song - going from doing something funny and outrageous occasionally to doing something funny and outrageous continually, because that's what people expect The Spaceman to do. It's an entertaining and fun book about the man, his teams, and the people running baseball in the 1970s, although we may also wonder "what might have been" while the story progresses.
Rated by buyers 
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Also know the Spaceman. He has been a troubled geek all his life, and socially inept - had few, if any friends growing up, and is still begging for attention. Cheated on all his relationships, which he likes to make a good thing. The baseball stories are true for the most part, but he will publicly state he lies. There are many other baseball memoirs more worthy of the time and expense.
Rated by buyers -
This book is written in the "I'm a character, ain't I cool" style, and I found it very annoying after about 10 pages. There are the inevitable comparisons to "Ball Four", but before you buy this, remember this: There's a good reason you've heard of "Ball Four", and a good reason you've never heard of this book.
Rated by buyers 
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Anyone wishing to escape the blandness of the mass manufactured sports biography should read Bill Lee's "Wrong Stuff." Not your average baseball player but a sharp incisive wit.
Rated by buyers -
The Wrong Stuff is a book written by former Red Sox and Expos left handed pitcher Bill Lee in 1984, about a year after his career as a major leaguer ended. It is a fairly quick read at 242 pages. What it is NOT, however, is a "typical" autobiography by a retired athlete. Lee, a California native who attended USC and now resides in Craftsbury, Vermont, instead delivers a real gem of a read.
Humor, insight, irreverence, and honesty are the bedrocks of this book, which follows Lee from his childhood in California, through high school and college, and into ranks of organized baseball. Lee is open and honest about drug use, love, sex, and his personal philosophy on life.
Lee was not a big prospect coming out of college, not like guys like Tom Seaver and Dave Kingman, both of whom he played with briefly before being drafted by the Red Sox in the 22nd round of the 1968 rookie draft. While he didn't throw that hard, he managed to get guys out by being crafty, out thinking hitters, and sometimes just by being crazy enough to believe he could do it. He headed off to pro ball without a lot of hope of making the major leagues. He figured he'd become a forest ranger when he grew up. Thankfully for him and baseball, Bill Lee never grew up.
Lee chronicles his moves through the minor leagues. During these years, he tangled with tough minor league managers (Rac Slider), met future Red Sox teammates (Carlton Fisk), and his future very first wife (Mary Lou), and made bets with teammates about who could drink a gallon of milk in one sitting without vomiting (nobody). As he does throughout the book, he chronicles some games he pitched in...there's no bravado here, though...he talks about the good and the bad with the same honesty and good humor. Lee's minor league career didn't last that long, as in 1969 he was called up to the Boston Red Sox.
Once he found his way to Fenway Park (an adventure in itself), Lee appeared in 20 games in that very first season, including one start. He only performed so-so, but made the team out of spring training in 1970. He only appeared in 11 games, however, because he was called up for military service. Lee has some fun talking about the absurdities of military life, but is also brutally honest about how he got preferential treatment because he was a pro athlete.
Lee pitched for Boston from 1969 to 1978, and the stories of winter ball fights, teammates, pennant races, trades, near trades, and run ins with management and coaches are all classic. He talks about the Red Sox teams from those years....moves they made, didn't make, should have made, and how he and the team did those years. Lee was a 17-game winner three times in a row from 1973-1975. He rails against the DH and talks about friendships, rivalries, and enemies, both on his team and around the league. He writes about his only All-Star selection and racism in baseball. He acquired his nickname, the Spaceman, during this time. He also experimented with drugs and alcohol, all of which he talks about openly and honestly.
The 1975 season had the Red Sox winning the pennant and going on to play the Cincinnati Reds in one of the greatest World Series ever played. Lee chronicles the season, and the run through the playoffs and the World Series. He started two games in that series, including the deciding seventh game, but did not record a win or loss. He had to leave game seven when a blister popped. The Sox bullpen coughed up the lead, and the Sox lost the series. Lee was fairly philosophical about the World Series loss, reasoning that it was great just to be part of such a great series. He spent two weeks that off-season in Red China as a goodwill ambassador, and came away with some interesting insights and stories.
Lee writes a lot about the 1976 season...a season that saw several players Lee saw as key cogs in the 1975 World Series team traded away, a brawl with the Yankees, his painful recovery, more trades in Boston, his thoughts on free agency, and a lot more. The brawl with the Yankees, who Lee and many other Red Sox flat out hated, involved Lee sustaining a major shoulder injury after being body slammed during the brawl by Yankees third baseman Craig Nettles. That year also saw the death of longtime Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey. Between the shoulder injury, the death of Yawkey, and a managerial change from Darrel Johnson to Don Zimmer, Lee feels that this season was a turning point in his time in Boston, and that his days there were now numbered.
During the 1977 season, Lee and several other "renegades" bound together to form the "Royal Order of the Buffalo Heads", named after manager Don Zimmer, who the compared to the buffalo, considered by many to be one of the dumbest animals alive. Lee also pitched the very first game of his career under the influence of a controlled substance that year. He got shuffled between the pen, the rotation, and the manager's ... Read More
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