Former Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee has decided to take his offbeat, far-left ideas to the race for Vermont governor.
Lee, who once threatened to “Van Gogh” an umpire’s ear, praised Mao’s China, and spoke repeatedly about his marijuana use, runs for the Mountain State’s top job as a member of the Liberty Union Party, the same party self-avowed socialist Bernie Sanders ran for Mayor of Burlington under in the 1970s.
Despite all his far left views, in a recent interview the 69-year-old Lee described himself as a “a pragmatic, conservative, forward thinker.”
His claim of conservatism aside, Lee is running on a platform of single-payer, government-controlled healthcare, a regime of high taxes on “the rich,” and the legalization and taxation of marijuana. He also insists he’ll bring the Expos back to Montreal.
On his plan for confiscatory tax rates, Lee says as governor he’d be even farther to the left than Bernie Sanders.
“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. 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,” the lefty pitching in the most games in Red Sox history said.
The outspoken former Major League ballplayer went on to call Republicans “pterodactyls,” hinted that the U.S. is a violent, mean place, and claimed he’d move out of the country if Donald Trump were to become president.
As to his feelings on pot, Lee has a long history of promoting marijuana use. He once even claimed that sprinkling marijuana on pancakes protected him from bus fumes as he jogged to Boston’s Fenway Park when he played for the Red Sox.
Lee had quite a pro baseball career. After thirteen years in the big leagues, the 1973 All Star and Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer went on to play semi-pro and at 65 years of age even became the oldest pitcher to win a professional baseball game.
The Vermonter also has an eccentric political past, having once run for president as a member of the American wing of Canada’s satirical Rhinoceros Party. His slogan was, “No guns. No Butter. They’ll both kill you.”
His platform included several baseball related promises, including outlawing Astro Turf, making baseball’s designated hitter rule illegal, and outlawing domed stadiums.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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