WHY THERE'S HOPE

We are still waiting right now... Saturday...12:08pm in the Tri-State area for Cliff Lee to decide. And Yankee fans. listen, it seems doubtful at this point that Lee will be a New York Yankee next year. Right? First off, New Yorkers are impatient. What the hell is taking so long anyway? Well, he has a family to discuss this with. What else? There's alot of money and years on the table, and not just from the Yankees, from the Rangers, and who knows who else is in the mix at this point.

For days now Jon Heyman from SI has reported that the Yankees have the advantage with a "monster" offer to Lee. The Rangers do as well though, don't get it twisted. The Rangers may offer less years, or even less money, but they are geographically closer to Lee's home in Arkansas, as Bronx Baseball Daily points out in their piece today. It's true. That, believe it or not, is a huge factor for a ballplayer.

CC is in New York and yes, the wives are close friends since the Cleveland days, but family to Lee is most likely more important than Carlston Charles. Yes, it's good to have a pal on the team with you, but there's something about homecooked meals and having your kids around you that gets you all fuzzy inside, especially now, the holiday season, where that's all around him while the contracts sit on the dining room table. Can money change that fuzzy feeling? Yes. Will it? Not sure yet, but the answer appears to be NO.

Many of us believe that the longer it takes for Lee to "decide", the more obvious it is that Cliff Lee will be a Texas Ranger next year. Rumors were 2 days ago, Lee was hunting with Josh Hamilton and Tommy Hunter. If this is really true, how do the Yankees compete with that?

They would have Lee's ear all day long. Whatever the case, I believe that the windows aboout to close on the New York Yankees. I hope to God I'm wrong.

Then, I was sitting here reading through the blogs and I thought, "Wait a minute, I kind of remember CC taking an awful long time to decide where he wanted to play in the winter of 2008 when the Yanks made their Monster offer to him." And I was right. It gave me hope. I found the article and here it is: HERE. If you read this, it gives a Yankee fan hope as well. WHY? Because the Yankees made their offer to CC Monster on November 14, 2008, and CC Sabathia didn't decide until around December 10th, right about now in 2010, if you're Cliff Lee. What's my point? Lee just got the offer, why not give him a few more days. Right?

I remember back in 2008, I was talking to my buddy Scott and I said "No way Sabathia's coming to New York. That much money and he's taking this long? No Way." At the end of the day, he did, and all of Yankeeland was happy.

The big point here is there's hope. There are many factors that go into a decision like this, family being the biggest, but providing for them is right there as well. And while it is overwhelming, time is one of the most important things for Lee to have right now. Take your time Cliff, come to New York. See the sights, wear the pinstripes and bring us another championship... you can't go wrong.

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