Dear Cliff,
You are...This is....I promised myself I wouldn't get choked up. Welcome home.
----visitphilly.com
This message appeared Tuesday on the visitphilly.com site and will soon be appearing on a billboard on I-95. Says it all!
When Cliff Lee put his Phillie cap on at today's presser, for a second all felt well with the world. It was an interesting 30 minutes. Before it started, Harold Reynolds of MLBN called it an "historical" moment. Lee echoed the "historic" comment, when he spoke about the rotation that he is now part of, as one that was impossible to resist. He wants to win and as he considered his options he felt that Philadelphia offered the best chance to do that.
Lee never felt he had to burn his bridges on leaving Philadelphia last year. The Phillies tried to reacquire him in July but refused to give up Domonic Brown, the asking price by the Mariners. Though both sides had left the door open, it seems that they only started talking four or five days ago. Somewhere in that time, Lee's wife Kristin talked with Ruben Amaro, Jr. by phone and told him, "Don't break our hearts again." It was off, then maybe on, and finally on Monday night it was real. Among the people Ruben Amaro gave credit to for making it work was Lee's agent, Darek Braunecker.
It now seems so inevitable. The Phillies try to acquire Roy Halladay in July 2009, balk at the trading price, and pull Cliff Lee out of a hat from Cleveland. Lee wows everyone in Philadelphia and is wowed in return. Then last December, the Phillies do trade for Roy Halladay and turn around and trade Lee to the Mariners. They get Halladay to waive his no-trade clause and sign a three-year extension. In July this year, they try to reacquire him, balk at giving up Brown, and turn around and trade for Roy Oswalt, who also waives a no-trade clause. Then out of nowhere they sign Cliff Lee to a five-year deal. On so many levels, it is simple amazing.
Lee also said again that he never wanted to leave Philadelphia, that it was where his heart was, and where he wanted to be for the rest of his career. Playing in Philadelphia was like nowhere else and he loved it from the start. So did his family.
Someone asked if he had talked with good buddy Jayson Werth. Yes, he had but could not possibly repeat his comments. Suffice to say, Werth was not happy to hear that Lee had signed with the Phillies. By chance, the Nationals had held a press conference for Werth a couple of hours earlier. It was sad seeing him in that hat with the ridiculous curly W on it. Cliff Lee, on the other hand, looked stunning in red.
