FAN ARTICLES
Cliff Lee

We had dealt away some young players to get Lee and the future wasn't looking as bright as the present so we dealt him away to the Seattle Mariners and ended up getting some young guys and another great pitcher by the name of Roy Halladay. Everyone in the city was disappointed to see Lee go.
In 2010, He played half of the year with Seattle then was traded again to Texas. He led Texas to the World Series (baseball championship) where they would eventually lose.
This offseason, his contract ran out. There was talk of him returning to Texas or going to the New York Yankees. I was shocked, as was everyone else, to hear yesterday, that he had returned to Philadelphia. There was supposedly no way the Phillies could sign him as he was way out of their budget. I later found out that he had turned down $38 million (£25 million) to rejoin the Phillies.
Most athletes go where the money is but not all. There is still hope that Rodwell, Fellaini, Coleman, and our other youngsters will see the light and stay at Everton. Unfortunately, not every athlete is Cliff Lee but there is hope that maybe not everyone can be bought.
Reader Comments (18)
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2 Posted 16/12/2010 at 09:25:52
However, it needs to be pointed out that Lee didn't sign for peanuts. Although it is difficult to compare baseball and football I doubt that a team of Everton's financial clout would have the resources to make an offer on the level Lee received from Philly, who have either the second or third highest payroll in MLB I believe.
Perhaps it is simply living in the US, but the perception I have always gotten is that, while athletes in other sports certainly aren't saints, the level of loyalty shown by the average footballer is abysmally low.
3 Posted 16/12/2010 at 09:30:35
The driver behind modern sportsmen's wages is initially the desire to get a better rate of pay. It always has been and always will be. Where things have changed is what they are being offered. Alan Shearer was about the first I recall amongst the higher paid footballers and that was driven by Newcastle's desire for him to play at their club. What follows after is where it all escalates.
It may be influenced by the people they choose surround themselves with but more pressing is the individuals desire to be equally acknowledged for their ability and contribution to the team. Players who consider themselves to be as good or better than the highest paid earner at the club. Newly purchased players want to be seen as the jewel in the crown just as much as the clubs want to parade their new signings as being the best.
To reflect and state the players wages are driven purely by the players requests is too easy and clean. The clubs are as much to blame although many clubs might not like how things have turned out, they should shoulder a lot of the blame.
Take Chelsea and Man City as perfect examples. The main reason many of the players are at the club is because of the ridiculous amounts offered for their services. Okay, it's easy to say the players set out their stall, and they probably did; however, neither club HAD to pay that amount and both clubs could have achieved similar results with considerably less expenditure.
On a side note, the amounts footballers, particularly, get paid, its more to do with image rights and marketing. Plus the relatively short careers meaning they need to gather as much now to keep them in a manner they are accustomed into their old age.
4 Posted 16/12/2010 at 09:59:26
5 Posted 16/12/2010 at 13:02:09
Lets face it Yaya Toure is on £220k per week FFS - how could we complete with that....?!
6 Posted 16/12/2010 at 13:33:48
He left a reported $30+ million on the table from the Yankees, to sign a contract with the Phils worth $24 million a season (or roughly $1 million every time he starts a game).
The Phils had the 4th highest payroll in the entire league last season, so he wasn't exactly going to a team known for being tight with funds. It wasn't a matter if the Phils could pay him, it was a matter of how much they Phils would pay him.
Lee showing loyalty to the Phils is a bit of stretch. While he obviously must have liked something about his time there in order to return, the Phils had his services for half a season in 2009, then shipped him off to one of the worst teams in the league the following winter.
Lee isn't unique in showing loyalty to a team, he is unique in showing loyalty to team that did just the opposite for him. If anything, Lee should be commended for his short memory, not his salary.
7 Posted 16/12/2010 at 14:09:35
8 Posted 16/12/2010 at 15:41:39
And as has been mentioned the Phillies have one of the top pay rolls in the game. Hardly a comparison to Everton. Your attempt to try and make this guy a saint as if he walked away from tens of millions of dollars a year is laughable at best. Not to mention that he chose to go to a team where he will be one of the best 4 pitchers, instead of leading a team as THE best pitcher, shying away from the pressure and responsibility of leading a team.
Editorial Team
9 Posted 16/12/2010 at 16:35:13
Clearly there wasn't. Leaving out the fact that he is actually being paid millions should have keyed me in. My apologies to those who waded through this nonsense.
10 Posted 16/12/2010 at 17:34:08
Whilst you are still in that absolutely miserable mood from Saturday's "debacle" against Wigan - can you take it out on Moysie's smiling photograph please?
Can I suggest you remove it and replace it with Hibbo with his arms up as if he has just scored...you never know, our luck may just change :) :)
12 Posted 16/12/2010 at 18:58:29
13 Posted 16/12/2010 at 21:25:40
Sings: Take me out..."
Etc.
14 Posted 17/12/2010 at 02:04:05
It's a serious far fetch to paint Lee as some saint with higher intentions than most because he went back to the Phillies - for obscene money and a more obscenely long contract.
I'd suggest next time you bring up baseball you educate the British and European masses of one Cal Ripken.
There's a man all Evertonians should ask their players to emmulate - and a man Rodwell, Felliani, and Coleman would do well to learn of.
He is the only professional athlete I respect 100% in my 41 years of living. And he showed loyalty that was simply unquestionable, work ethic of a gladiator, heart of a lion. Your Lee? Not even fit to wash Ripken's feet.
C'mon man - seriously.
15 Posted 17/12/2010 at 05:43:54
16 Posted 17/12/2010 at 10:53:56
17 Posted 17/12/2010 at 17:03:38
Fair enough. I just wonder, though, if the clock was wound back to when this Arkansas traveler was struggling with the Indians a few years ago, if he would have made the same decision had he become a free agent then and the Yankees offered considerably more than anyone else.
Anyway, even though I am a Dodger (became a fan in '77 when we moved to Canada and I saw the royal blue hats!), and I should rightfully hate the Phils as much as Lasorda did, I love watching Lee pitch (he's a surgeon in the Greg Maddux mold) and I like watching Philly play. Good luck next year without Werth in the lineup.
I do fucking hate your born again closer, Brad Lidge, though. That guy is a Grade A turd-burgler.
COYB!!!!!!!!!!!
(Whisper it... I think we're gonna turn over Shiteh.)
18 Posted 18/12/2010 at 01:15:04
19 Posted 18/12/2010 at 01:54:04
Want your Club to grow and have funds to sign a striker? I'd open up to Americans and their interests a little more. You might include Australians, Africans, Japanese, Thailand, China, et al......
But wait! Everton's marketing swath encompasses Liverpool! Big thinkers those folks in charge. Keep it small and manageable, to what you know, right?
Widen your scope mate.
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1 Posted 16/12/2010 at 08:02:36
Many people beleive that the ludicrous wages top stars demand are a sign of arrogance. I believe that they are, in fact, testament to a deep insecurity. In a life where you are surrounded by hangers on, fair-weather friends, agents and other leeches, it may be heard to actually trust the adulation. Meanwhile, contracts are virtually valueless. In addition, the famous "career threatening injury" is always just one Jimmy Case away.
In a world of such uncertainties, money is probably the only hard fact; so much so that it becomes a means of "keeping score", the only tangible measure of self worth. ("I must be the best because I earn more than....".)
If Cliff Lee really has come back to Philadelphia for little more than the price of one of those enormous sandwiches you eat there, I would suggest it's because he simply has a healthy sense of self-confidence and security. And good on him.