Cliff Jumping

Don't worry. It's just begun.

by Brian Howard

Had I decided to turn in a few minutes earlier, I'd have missed it all.

It was a Facebook post by my friend Andrew that caught my eye as I was about to close my laptop for the evening. "So nice to have Cliff Lee back in Philly," he wrote at two minutes past midnight.

Weird, I thought: Is ol' Clifton Phifer in town for an event? Killing time on a layover en route to New York for some kind of LeBron-esque announcement about where he's bringing his talents? Dropping the puck at a Flyers game?

The truth was the kind of shocker that, in a world filthy with pundits and a media landscape dominated by strategic leaks, just doesn't happen these days. While everyone was convinced that the free agent left-hander was headed one of two places — The House that Ruth Built or Deep in the Heart of Texas — Lee called an audible. By deciding to sign with the Phillies for less money and fewer years than either New York or Texas were offering, Mr. Lee has, in essence, created a seismic shift — hell, he's warped space-time — in this city, probably permanently.

There are at least three reasons.

One: In finally reversing his greatest folly (no, not the Raul Ibañez contract), GM Ruben Amaro Jr. has emboldened the chattering columnist class, who excoriated last offseason's flip of Lee to Seattle for prospects as the follow-through of dealing prospects to Toronto for Roy Halladay; they will told-you-so this move ad infinitum — or at least until the Phils' new four-headed beast of a starting rotation hits its first bump in the road.

Two: No one can ever believe what the organization says about money again. Trading Lee last year was, at least according to some reports, about money. Trading for Roy Oswalt required Houston to pay part of his salary. Not signing Jayson Werth was about coin. Now, according to reports, Amaro "wasn't going to lose [Lee] over $5 million." The Phillies play baseball, but their owners run a mint.

Three: Remember all those single-minded, almost troll-like commenters? The ones who, even after Oswalt was added to the fold, never let go of the idea of Lee nonchalantly catching World Series pop-ups against the Yankees? Who dreamed up scenarios in which Lee wasn't going to take the big New York money and come back to Philly because, gosh darn it, he liked it here so much? Holy shit! The trolls were right! Has that ever happened? Does dark matter now become light? Does the Möbius strip snap? Do M.C. Escher drawings become real?

The Phillies had lulled their fanbase into thinking their offseason was over. Monday, the team brought out the defibrillators. If you missed it — the panicked blogging, the obsessive Googling, the manic Tweeting — don't worry. It's just begun.

(bhoward@citypaper.net)