Phillies Big Three is Now a Big Four
By: Mike Reisman
Well isn't this just lovely. No more than two hours or so after I wrote about the wonderful possibility of Cliff Lee returning to Philly (and unfortunately, only about twenty minutes after I went to sleep), Cliff Lee decided to make his return to Philadelphia, agreeing on a signing with the Phils. Later in the day, the Phillies announced the deal was for five years and $120 million. Though that is still a significant amount of money, Lee passed up other, more lucrative offers from the Yankees, who were willing to empty their pockets for Lee, and the Rangers, the team that brought him to his second straight world series.
First let me say, I have a newfound respect for Cliff Lee. Lee left a lot of money on the table from other teams, just so he could be where he wanted to be, in Philly, a city which he has repeatedly praised. Though that seems like the obvious choice for some, I am willing to bet money that it was still very tough to walk away from the cash, especially in this day and age where money is everything. For that I commend him.
So now what we have is the most dominant rotation in the MLB, and probably one of the best in the history of the sport. Now I could spend the rest of the post saying how good the Phillies will be, but I did that
last night, and the only thing I would like to add to that is that now, the Phillies are World Series favorites (shocker right?). No, what I really want to talk about is how great it is to out-bid the Yankees, and at the same time save money. I honestly had three friends of mine who are Yankees fans come up to me and tell me they hated me. One even said he never really hated the Phillies until now. Quite honestly, this was one of the best moments of my day. There is nothing I hate more about baseball, than the Yankees buying everyone, and their fans (with the exception of the ones actually FROM the Bronx), so winning over a player enough to make him choose the team he loves over basically infinite money is pretty exciting. Not only that, but now the Phillies are clearly the superior team to the Yankees, another great feeling. Overall, I would consider this transaction a win.