Q&A: Ex-Red Sox pitcher Bill 'Spaceman' Lee on running for governor, America's future

On an Election Day that delivered many surprising returns, Vermont had some of the strangest. President-elect Donald Trump did worse there than he did in every state besides Hawaii, but Hillary Clinton captured only 55% of the vote. A full 12.4% of the state’s presidential ballots were cast for third-party candidates or write-ins. More votes were written in for Bernie Sanders—the state's junior senator, who was no longer running for president—than were cast for third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein combined.

So it's in keeping with the state’s idiosyncrasy that eccentric ex-big-league lefty and Craftsbury resident Bill “Spaceman” Lee got 8,912 votes—2.78% of the vote—running for…