The Ballad Of Bill Spaceman Lee - Nathan Bell
The Ballad of Bill “Spaceman” Lee
Words and Music by Nathan Bell copyright 2008

Word came down from North of Mars
That Missus Lee’s boy was gonna be a star
So they cleared a path directly down to earth
I stood all day in the pouring rain
Just for tickets to a baseball game
But who’s to say what a love like that is worth

They’d traded him up to Montreal
Where he’d lost his heart and his breaking ball
And started talking to the umpire in his head
I was twenty years old in Fenway Park
The lights were on but I was in the dark
With everything just hanging by a thread

Hey Bill Spaceman Lee
Strike that man out for me
I want to feel a little hopeful
We live this life everyday
One good swing or a strike away
From being free
So strike that man out
Bill spaceman Lee

It wasn’t that he pitched so bad
But he looked less like me and more like my dad
And there was something in the way he’d catch his breath
It was 1980 and every line we crossed
Led us somewhere else that would soon be lost
And I was afraid that I might hope myself to death

When the big sign over Kenmore square
Started burning bright we got out of there
And I’m pretty sure I’ve never been the same
I haven’t been back in 30 years
And me and the spaceman might have disappeared
In the same fifth inning of that game