Oz and the Spaceman

Via the Palm Beach Post, Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen and famed baseball eccentric Bill "Spaceman" Lee are friends (of sorts), dating back to their time on Los Tiburones de La Guaira of the Venezuelan league in the early eighties. Lee was a big influence on the then-17-year-old Guillen:

"When you grow up with players like that who have so much fun and love the game the way he did," Guillen said, "I'm not going to say he was the biggest reason I have fun in the game, but he's got something to do with it.'"

Click through for the full story, including the time Lee went AWOL from the team for a week or so to live in the Amazon with an indigenous tribe. Great reporting by Joe Capozzi of the PBP.

Bonus content: Jesse Thorn interviewed Lee AND Will Carroll for an episode of The Sound of Young America. Material from the podcast WILL be included on the next quiz, so give it a listen!

The Sound of Young America

More Bill Lee stuff: Deadspin reprinted an extended interview Lee gave High Times in 1980. Obviously, this is worth your time.

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