How Cliff Lee Beat the News Cycle

From Nando DiFino, Wall Street Journal:

In a world of saturated sports coverage, where every comment, Tweet or sneeze is analyzed ad nauseum, Cliff Lee’s decision to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies was a beautiful stunner.

For months, it had been all but determined that Lee would choose between the Yankees or Rangers. Would he sign for six years? Would it be seven? Where would his wife sit in Yankee Stadium? Sports writers fed their families on rumors.

And then, somehow, while all of our attention was diverted to the hand wiggling the handkerchief high above the magician’s head, the little bird in the cage disappeared. And it flew straight to Philadelphia for a reported $120 million over five years.

Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay, arguably two of the game’s best pitchers, are now on the same staff. And they’re followed by Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, neither of them slouches. Ruben Amaro Jr., who made a name for himself by convincing pitcher Kyle Kendrick that he had been traded to Japan for a hot-dog eating champion, has to now be considered one of baseball’s shrewdest general managers.

Lee was crushed by the trade that sent him from Philadelphia to Seattle almost a year ago to the day, telling the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that, “I thought I was going to spend the rest of my career [in Philadelphia]“—Lee had been negotiating an extension when he was traded. And then there’s the money: Lee left tens of millions of dollars on the table by signing for two fewer years than New York and Texas had reportedly been offering.

Although Yankees and Rangers fans probably woke up with a bad taste in their mouths this morning, Lee’s deal with the Phillies shows that surprise remains possible in this 24-7 sports news cycle.

“Lee had been silent, and his agent, Darek Braunecker, had not said much, either,” Tyler Kepner of the New York Times writes. “They played this to perfection, and in the process kept all of baseball guessing.”

Read more here.