Baseball history is littered with legendary players, athletes who broke records and made history around the base pads. And then there’s Bill “Spaceman” Lee. The southpaw pitcher certainly had the skill to play the game, but it was his antics that earned him headlines, and while he might not be the most obvious choice, Josh Duhamel is bringing him to life on the big screen.
Directed by five-time Emmy nominee Brett Rapkin, the movie catches up with Lee after he’s bounced from the Montreal Expos and essentially banned from the sport, but that certainly won’t stop him from taking the mound. Here’s the official synopsis:
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From the executive producer of ‘Bull Durham’ and ‘White Men Can’t Jump’ comes SPACEMAN, the mostly-true story of former all-star MLB pitcher Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee. In the twilight of a long career as one of baseball’s all-time great eccentrics, Lee (Josh Duhamel) is cut from the Montreal Expos in 1982. Though Lee finds himself blackballed by the rest of the league for his outspoken politics (his views being “somewhere to left of Che Guevara”) and notoriously enthusiastic drug use, he refuses to quit the game. As of 2016, he still hasn’t.
“Spaceman” opens in theaters and on VOD on August 19th.