Go ahead and pencil Mariners pitcher Cliff Lee into future Yankee rotations.
Venerable lefty Andy Pettitte is pitching wonderfully this season, but he can’t last forever. Team Steinbrenner will need a second long-term hammer for the starting staff.
Lee is comfortable pitching in Yankee Stadium, as he demonstrated while hurling a complete game at the American League East juggernaut Tuesday. He doesn’t mind the big stage, as he demonstrated by beating the Yankees twice in last fall’s World Series.
He is the only opposing pitcher to throw a complete game in the new ballpark – and he has done it twice.
“Yeah, I like pitching here,” Lee told reporters. “I've always enjoyed pitching here.
"You know there's going to be a lot of fans. I've always enjoyed pitching here. They're knowledgeable fans that understand the game, and they get into it.
"As a player, that's what you like and respect. Obviously, I try to keep them as quiet as possible when I face them on this side."
He is also comfortable with the mass transit system in greater New York City. He rode the subway out to the Bronx Tuesday and made the necessary adjustments when his train blew through his stop.
“I'm not afraid to take the subway,” Lee said.
Lee will become a free agent after this season. His unwillingness to sign a three-year contract extension in Philadelphia led to his trade to Seattle, which is lagging in the American League West. The Mariners figure to deal him to a contender at some point before the trade deadline.
Wrote Joel Sherman of the New York Post: “He now is 43-19 with a 2.81 ERA since the start of the 2008 season. Plus, he was 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA in last year’s postseason. He is a season changer for any contender. That is why the Mets should do what is necessary to get him and why even the Yanks should be thinking similarly.”
The Yankees may not make a move on him this summer, but it will hard to imagine that team passing on him in free agency.
“I'd love to have him here,” Yankees ace CC Sabathia told the New York Daily News. “Cliff was always this good. I know he's excited about going to a place where he can contend.”
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while wondering if the Arizona Diamondbacks can hang around longer than scheduled to lend the Cardinals a hand:
Was Carlos Zambrano just trying to be a good teammate and fire up the moribund Cubs?
Can the San Francisco Giants hold their clubhouse together better than the Cubs have?
Would the Blues buck up for free-agent defenseman Anton Volchenkov as an upgrade over Carlo Colaiacovo?
What does Landon Donovan really think of FIFA officials? (See related video)
QUIPS ‘R US
Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:
Jay Mariotti, FanHouse: “In modern times or yesteryear, nothing matches the knuckle-hair-searing concept of LeBron James, in a package deal capable of igniting a tropical storm, joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh with the Miami Heat. This would be an unprecedented union of basketball talent in one swoop -- a supersized project coached and/or overseen by Hall of Famer Pat Riley, don't forget -- and I've come today to say it is no silly pipedream or blogger's whim. Forget all the various reports attached to sources who may or may not exist. The most credible form of attribution comes from Wade himself, who all but confirmed to the Miami Herald his desire to create the trifecta.”
Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “LeBron James and Chris Bosh, both of them, together with Dwyane Wade? Turning every Heat game into an event? Making Miami the new epicenter of the NBA for years? Catholics have flocked to confession for thoughts involving far less greed and gluttony than that.I would dare say that making this triumvirate happen, and all it implied in future gold, might be the most seismic episode in local sports since the Dolphins' perfect season and consecutive Super Bowl victories in 1972-73.”
Ray Ratto, CBSSports.com: “Soccer in America has gone hunting for buzz since the New York Cosmos ate the North American Soccer League in the late '70s, and more recently by whoring itself out to David Beckham. The gains the game has made have happened despite that idiotic strategy, not because of it, because playing for five days here or 10 days there isn't what got soccer to its present level. Long, slow, steady player development, plus greater viewer access to the best European, Asian and South American leagues did. The fact that the U.S. is currently ranked 12th is, well, exactly where all that development should have gotten us. But apparently, the one thing holding the game back is the lack of a coach who knows how to maintain buzz and ratings points, which is why Bob Bradley is in trouble today. He wasn't a good enough alchemist, standup comic, catch-phrase purveyor, psychological wizard or telegenic lunatic.”
Rick Reilly, ESPN.com: “The world is an idiot. Last week, it completely snubbed one of the greatest records set in baseball -- Jamie Moyer's unprecedented 506th home run dished up. ‘We just thought it was a dubious record that Jamie would rather ignore,’ a Phillies executive said. Ignore it? Are you nuts? Celebrate it! Bronze it! Throw it a parade! The game should have been stopped and Moyer handed a live gopher! A phone that dials only room service! A car made of meat! The Phillies now have the two greatest yard salesmen in MLB history -- Moyer and Hall of Famer Robin Roberts. Do you have any idea how good you have to be to get this record? They should've given Moyer 506 bells that ding, 506 taters, 506 baseballs to replace the ones he lost!”
MEGAPHONE
“I don't think this conference will last long because there is too much disparity between all the teams. In the SEC, for instance, Vanderbilt makes as much money in the television contract as Florida. Everybody is good with it. Everybody is on the same page. Everyone gets the same votes. That doesn't happen here in the Big 12. We have some teams that get a little bit more money and have a little bit more stroke than some of the other teams. And when that happens, you're gonna have teams looking for better avenues to leave and reasons to leave.”
Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville, on the Big 12 (Minus Two), to Rivals Radio.
ELSEWHERE ON STLTODAY
Trade speculation is heating up in the NHL.
