During his time with the Red Sox (1969-78) and Expos (1979-82), Bill "Spaceman" Lee was much more well known for being eccentric than he was for being an effective left-handed pitcher who won 119 games. Those zany lefties, man.
Nowadays Lee is preparing to run for governor of Vermont, according to Kyle Midura of WCAX.com. Among his platforms: taking money from the rich and bringing the Expos back to Montreal. What does that have to do with Vermont? Who knows. From Midura:
Now, he's throwing his hat into the race to be Vermont's next governor shaking off campaign contributions and decrying wealth inequality.
"You get what you pay for, if you want change, you vote for Sanders or me. I'm Bernie-heavy, I'm not Bernie-lite. My ideas were before Bernie," said Lee. "If you want to see money come down from the 2 percent, we're going to need umbrellas when I'm elected, because it's going to be raining dollars," he said.
...
He argues for legalization and taxation of pot in Vermont, along with single-payer health care, paid family leave and bringing the Expos back to Montreal.
This is not the first time Spaceman has dabbled in politics. He ran for president back in 1988 as a member of the Rhinoceros Party, which, of course, is a Canadian political party. That didn't work out too well, partly because he proposed bulldozing the Rocky Mountains and banning butter.
Lots and lots of folks want to get the Expos back to Montreal, including our own Jonah Keri. Can Lee help make that happen as governor of Vermont? Well, there's only one way to find out ...
(h/t Hardball Talk)