Butch Edge

The Bespectacled Spectacle was recently featured in a short post in the excellent Number 5 Type Collection. Matthew (the author) also left an amazing comment on a previous Bespectacled Spectacle post featuring Mr. Mark Lee, the sun bleached bespectacled beach bum with the most prized pair of frames this side of Bogota.

The story of Mark Lee's mid-inning retirement features one of our favorite four-eyed mound-bums: Butch Edge.


A former 1st round pick for the Brew Crew, Butch had only a sip of coffee in the bigs- winning 3 and losing 4 for the Blue Jays in 1979. From the looks of his card, he did not take a shower during that entire stretch. It's possible he was just living up to his name- second only to Evil Knievel in pure bravado. Were the glasses just a front, to throw off those who might suspect his second life as a daredevil ne'er-do-well and man of the range?

By the time he was replacing the retiring Lee, one can imaging that he looked even shaggier (and were they sharing glasses at that point?). In our bespectacled minds eye (or eyes), heaven can be found in the bullpen of the Portland Beavers in 1982- Lee and Edge and pray for rain (to clean their lenses).

Whatever happened to Butch seems to be a mystery- a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a vest wrapped in turtle shell. More than likely he is a lion tamer in Burkina Faso, or a planet hopper in pursuit of Buckaroo Bonzai, maybe just a bartender in Williamsburg, Brooklyn- we may never know.

Coming soon- the long awaited list of Specs from the Sixties...