‘Spaceman’ displays competitive fire at charity tournament

ESSEX, Vt. — Bill Lee stared at the 6-year-old crowding his plate like he did at Johnny Bench doing the same thing more than 40 Octobers ago. At 69 years old, Lee’s eyes are still wide. His hair still kicks wildly from underneath his cap. He’s still wearing all red. And a Green Monster is again at his back.

But it’s not Bench digging in against Lee, as he did during the 1975 World Series at the real Fenway. It’s a child waving a plastic yellow bat. Lee is throwing WIFFLE balls. He kicks his leg high and hums a riseball under the kid’s hands.

“It’s the same intensity,” Lee said afterward. “When I’m out there on the mound, I want to win!”

Only here, deep in the bucolic Vermont woods, do these types of moments unfold. For the 15th consecutive year, the Travis Roy Foundation has brought more than 1,000 people together for a WIFFLE ball tournament at its unique complex. Thirty-two teams are competing this weekend on to-scale replicas of Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and the “Field of Dreams,” from the iconic 1989 movie. All of the fields are cloned with excruciating detail.

The goal of the event is to raise money for spinal cord injury research. The result is a community weekend involving teams from all over the region, and games with people of all ages — toddlers, teenagers, expectant mothers and, yes, even former Major Leaguers — sharing the same field.

Lee, who lives in Vermont and is running for governor of the state, is the lone Major League connection to the tournament besides the fields. The acerbic lefty pitched in 416 games for the Red Sox and Expos from 1969-82, …

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