When I dream, I dream BIG

//"It's plenty of money," Lee said. "When you hit a certain point, enough's enough. It's just a matter of where you're comfortable, where you're happy, where your family's the most comfortable, what team gives you the best chance to win."//

The more I think about this whole "Cliff Lee left a crap load of money on the table and basically told the Yankees he'd rather play in a city where they boo'd Santa Claus AND Mike Schmidt than take their money and deal with idiot reporters every day" thing the more amazed I get.

Look, the fact he's gonna be part of one of the best starting rotations ever factored in his decision, along with the fact he loved the manager, his teammates, and the city. And the Phillies are one of the top 5 teams in the game and figure to stay there for the foreseeable future. But what Lee did is completely opposite of what every other player the Yankees set their sights on has ever done; CC, Burnett, Slappy, Rogah, Kevin Brown, Damon, etc.. all paid lip service to listening to other teams offers only to bolt to the Yankees when they opened up the vault.

I jokingly referenced the scene in "Training Day" on Facebook the other day about how all of a sudden it's like the rest of the league has turned into the project residents that Washington's Alonzo Harris had crapped on for years and the Yankees were now Alonzo Harris. They've bullied and bribed and spent their way to the top for so many years that it's almost like the league is as sick of it as everybody whose not a Yankee fan walking the streets are. And they turn a deaf ear to his yelling and ordering and intimidating and simply walk away.

Like most things I come up with it was completely grabbed out of my rear end with no basis on fact and was, predictably, wrong. Lee is the exception, not the rule and I'm sure they'll be plenty of players in the near future who will follow the all-mighty dollar. The Yankees will always be the lead dog in the race to sign any big name free agents and it'll be a pier six brawl in the AL East until the day Gabriel blows his horn.

But for one brief instance in my addled, sleep deprived, Sponge Bob Squarepants saturated brain, it was Training Day all over again.

Thanks, Cliff.