New Hampshire Film Festival 2008

High and Outside is a raucous, rousing, iconoclastic journey through the baseball life of Bill ?Spaceman? Lee. One of the most colorful and controversial figures to play the game, Bill?s rebellious spirit, fun-loving attitude, spirit-of-the-60s philosophy endeared him to fans but pitted him squarely in opposition to the corporate baseball establishment. And Bill did not back down.Rumor had it that Bill was blackballed from baseball, a conspiracy that has never been uncovered. How could the fun loving ?Spaceman? be kicked out of baseball? Why? Too controversial ? or simply washed up? 'High & Outside' looks for answers. Anything but conventional, Bill was the first professional athlete to admit using marijuana; he took sides on everything from artificial turf to segregation in schools. A "baseball utopian," Bill was actively involved in the early days of the baseball players union. He staged one-man walkouts but opposed the 1981 strike. Lee was a voice of reason and sanity in a game corrupted by 'planet-polluting owners' and the corporate mindset. He was consistently unpredictable, 'a free man, and a free-radical, not owned by any corporation, yet becoming increasingly difficult to handle for owners and management. 'High and Outside' reveals Bill's enigmatic personality and the unlikely story of Bill's banishment from the game. In the tradition of 'Bang the Drum Slowly', and 'Fear Strikes Out', 'High and Outside' will make you think, especially make you laugh, and remind you that there is more to baseball than steroids, salaries, and the bottom line.