He played eight seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB).

Lee, the oldest of six children, graduated from Grant High School in Sacramento with 36 football scholarship offers from major four-year universities.

Instead, he began his professional career at 18 as the number one draft pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in September 1969 after an excellent season at Tulsa where he batted .303.

On July 25, 1971, a home run off Bob Johnson led to a 2-1 win against Pittsburgh in the first game of a double-header.

After retiring from Japanese baseball, he went on to become the batting coach for the Oakland Athletics in 1989 when they won the World Series.