Pitching is the star attraction for baseball’s 2010 postseason. A no hitter and a 14-strikeout performance are perhaps even more damning evidence of how pervasive the steroid era was in baseball than the Mitchell report.
The stars are not big bashers Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez and Josh Hamilton. It’s Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay, San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum and Texas’ Cliff Lee — the Rangers’ Game 3 starter Monday night in the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees.
That’s Cliff Lee, as in the 2008 Cy Young Award Winner.
That’s Cliff Lee, as in the 6-0, 1.44 ERA postseason pitcher.
That’s Cliff Lee, as in the former Washington National.
Yes, Nationals fans — in case you’ve forgotten or are not familiar with the history of your franchise before it got to Washington, the great Cliff Lee was once the property of the franchise that now operates on South Capitol Street.
Another body blow to a bruised franchise.
In fact, for all area baseball fans, both Orioles and Nationals, if you really want to extrapolate the possibilities, Lee could have been a Baltimore Oriole as well as a Washington National.
What is worse for those fans: The pain of what is or the pain of what could have been? Unfortunately, they go hand-in-hand.
The Orioles connection with Lee is far more of a fantasy than his ties with the Nationals. Lee was drafted by the Orioles in the 20th round of the 1998 draft — a Pat Gillick draft, mind you — but did not sign.
He had been drafted out of Benton High School in Arkansas the year before by the Florida Marlins, but opted instead to go to Meridan Community College in Mississippi. When the Orioles drafted him, Lee chose to go to the University of Arkansas instead.
Two years later, the Montreal Expos (Washington Nationals) did draft Lee much higher — in the fourth round of the 2000 draft, and he signed. But before the 2002 trade deadline, Expos general manager Omar Minaya made the trade that haunts Nationals fans to this day: dealing Lee, second baseball Brandon Phillips and outfielder Grady Sizemore, all future major league stars, to the Cleveland Indians for starting pitcher Bartolo Colon.
Lee has become the preeminent star of that trio, front and center now in baseball’s postseason. And what makes it all the more painful is that he could have still conceivably been in a Nationals uniform when the Lerner family took over ownership of the team in the middle of the 2006 season.
Lee made his major league debut with the Indians in 2003, which is when his service-time clock began. By the 2006 season — if he had still been in a Nationals uniform — Lee would have just been entering his first season of arbitration, and the Lerners still would have had control of him and the option to pay him.
Of course, we know they probably would not have done so, although some press reports say the Nationals would be willing to overspend to go after Lee, a free agent after the season ends.
The Lerners purchased the Nationals for $450 million. For Lee to play in Washington, that’s good place to start.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN 980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected]
