By Harun Taylor
As the temperature slowly began to decline, and the swirling wind blew tiny dust devils across the infield of the diamond, The Rockies featured Bill “The Spaceman” Lee for their final game of the baseball season at The Q. The game ended with a win for the San Quentin Giants, 6-2.
In the bottom of the first, Jeff “Paranormal” Dumont tapped The Spaceman for a single, followed by Jose Sandoval advancing him to second, but he was tossed out at first. Then, Anthony “Tone” Sorrell connected into shallow left field that got by the outfielder, resulting in Tone getting an in-the-park homer.
“He’s going to need some oxygen after that run,” said one of Tone’s teammates, laughing.
The Giants led after the first inning, 3-0.
The top of the first and second both ended with Paranormal getting the side out; in the third, The Spaceman re-created the magic with Chris “Captain Chris” Deragon at the plate.
With the count 2-1, The Spaceman threw a pitch so slow, it literally looked as if it were an underhand softball pitch; the pitch had so much arc, one could have driven a mini-van beneath it. The pitch froze Captain Chris and then dropped into the strike zone.
As plate umpire, Mark Jordan yelled, “Strike!” Deragon looked at the ump and asked, “Are you serious?”
The Spaceman followed that junk with a 76 mph fastball that struck Deragon out. “Thank you; come again!” the announcer proclaimed.
In the top of the fourth, #44 Ben Cerami took the mound in relief of The Spaceman.
“I’m in the bullpen tonight for the San Rafael Pacifics,” said The Spaceman. “I’ll be starting Saturday on the mound in another game.”
The Spaceman added, when his age was mentioned and talk about possibly slowing down, “Oh, I still have my vices. I drink tequila and still like to have a good time. However, I also swim and jog every day.”
The Spaceman turned to one of the younger players on his team, saying with a wink, “You gotta have your vices.”
“He keeps you guessing because he has so many weapons,” said Trevor Bird, S.Q. Giant outfielder. “Even though he’s up in age, you would think that he loses velocity, but a great pitcher keeps you guessing.”
During the fifth inning, Steve Reichardt, assistant coach for the S.Q. Giants, brought brand-new baseballs around for all the Giants to sign to give to the visiting team.
“Any team that donates equipment, makes a donation or has come in to play and help support our baseball program gets signed baseballs at the end of the season. It’s our way of saying ‘Thank you’,” he said.
Before the game ended, The Spaceman moved from the mound to first base, and ended the game in right field.
In the top of the seventh, and down by four runs, the Rockies went down swinging, making contact, but couldn’t get a pitch to leave the infield. The last batter hit a hot shot directly back toward Paranormal, who caught it, ending the game with a smile on his face.
