William Crutcher "Big Bill" Lee (October 21, 1909 – June 15, 1977) was a
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
. He played professionally for the
Chicago Cubs,
Philadelphia Phillies, and
Boston Braves during the 1930s and 1940s.
Early life and career
Lee was born in
Plaquemine, Louisiana
Plaquemine is a city in and the parish seat of Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area. At the 2010 United States census, the population was 7,119; the 2020 census determined its ...
, and played
college baseball
College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...
as a freshman for
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...
.
He was originally a top prospect in the
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...
organization. In August 1933, Cardinals general manager
Branch Rickey called his counterpart with the Cubs,
William Veeck, Sr. and offered him two pitchers—Lee and
Clarence Heise. According to
Bill Veeck, one of Rickey's favorite tricks was to offer another team two players and trust that the other team would take the wrong one. In the case of Lee and Heise, Rickey knew that all but one Cubs pitcher was right-handed, and expected the Cubs to take Heise, a left-hander. However, on the advice of chief scout
Jack Doyle, the Cubs took Lee. As it turned out, Heise would make only one relief appearance in 1934, and was never heard from again. It was one of the few times where Rickey, who was legendary for fleecing
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
teams, ended up getting fleeced himself.
Lee spent 10 full seasons with the Cubs, as well as a pair of cameo appearances in 1947. He made his major league debut on April 29, 1934, with the Cubs. He saved Game 5 of the
1935 World Series
The 1935 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1935 season. The 32nd edition of the World Series, it matched the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago Cubs. The Tigers won in six games for their first championship i ...
at
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...
, with his team on the verge of elimination, and his best year was in 1938 when he helped lead the Cubs to another
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
with a league-leading 22 wins and a 2.66 ERA. He was on the
National League All-Star Team twice when he played for the Cubs.
Lee played for the Phillies from 1943–1945 and for the Braves from 1945–1946. Lee developed eye problems which made it difficult for him to see the catcher's signs. Eyeglasses helped little, and he retired in 1947 while playing for the Cubs.
Lee's career marks were 169 wins, 157 losses and a 3.54 ERA. His 139 wins with the Cubs are still the ninth-most in franchise history.
Life after baseball
After retiring, Lee returned to Plaquemine, Louisiana, and had eye surgery for his detached retinas. He eventually lost sight in one eye Lee suffered a heart attack in 1976 while visiting in Texas and died on June 15, 1977, and is interred in Saint John Cemetery in Plaquemine.
Awards and honors
Lee was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1962.
References
Further reading
* ''The Chicago Cubs: Seasons at the Summit'' by Warren Wilbert, published by Sports Publishing LLC, 1997.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Bill
1909 births
1977 deaths
National League All-Stars
National League ERA champions
National League wins champions
Philadelphia Phillies players
Chicago Cubs players
Boston Braves players
Major League Baseball pitchers
Baseball players from Louisiana
Greensboro Patriots players
Columbus Red Birds players
Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players
People from Plaquemine, Louisiana
Scottdale Cardinals players