If you're a Red Sox fan of a certain age, the words "Bill 'Spaceman' Lee" bring back a smile and some fond memories. Those were the days when hating the Yankees wasn't just a chant, it was black eyes and dislocated shoulders. Lefthanded junk-baller Bill Lee was one of the heroes of those salad days.

So I watched with great interest last night when NESN broadcast a one hour version of a new documentary on Lee called Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey. The show featured a quick overview of Lee's controversial career and then followed him on a baseball tour of Cuba -- Lee was the only former professional among the Americans.

As I said, for those of us of a certain age, there were some special moments watching some of the old footage, seeing some of the interviews with Fred Lynn, Luis Tiant and Bernie Carbo, and at one point when Lee starts naming the guys who used to be on the field with him...Rice, Lynn, Evans, Doyle, Burleson, Hobson, Yaz...those were the days.

I guess no hero is perfect though, especially the closer you get, and maybe a trip to Cuba with an old hippie is a bit too close. The shots of the ballgames in Cuba were interesting, if somewhat poorly put together -- maybe the full length version will do it better, but for a movie centering around the game of baseball, the story of the games themselves is almost completely absent. What were the scores, anyway?

But worst of all was watching Lee leave his manor house in Vermont to fly to Cuba (a trip he has apparently made numerous times) and admire the pristine, clean lives the people live there. Watching Lee fawn over conditions in the worker's paradise was...well somewhat nauseating to tell you the truth. It would have been been more nauseating if Lee had a reputation as a serious person rather than a goofball, but nonetheless...

Listen Bill, you know why things are so clean and natural there, and the people live so simply? Because they're so poor they virtually have to eat dirt because that's the condition their dictator keeps them in. Lee laments that the day will come when it won't always be this way because after all, "Castro can't live forever." Well thank the Lord for small miracles.

Ironically, a loudmouthed iconoclast like Lee would be in jail in Cuba, or perhaps one of those who'd be trying to escape to America on a boat made out of stapled together banana peels if they could afford the staples. Instead, due to a quirk of fate, Lee enjoys Cuba as a safari destination while fantasizing about bringing down boxes of spark plugs to heroically distribute for all the 1950's era automobiles the Cubans have running without wondering why they have all those old cars and if that really the way the Cubans want it. Thank you bwana!

On all the Castro and Che "art" covering the walls: Well, you know, sure, that's what "we would call propaganda," but actually, the Cubans really love and respect those guys. Good grief.

Oh well, no sense in taking it all too seriously, we'll always have our memories.

Oh, and just who the hell is Stan Papi? Some people are still asking. Well, I'm sure he's a fine fellow, but he was also the guy who the Red Sox traded Lee for at the end of the 1978 season just to get rid of him. Papi was a nobody who came to Boston in exchange for one of the most popular players on the team.