Cliff Lee gets another shot at a World Series ring

SAN FRANCISCO - One day, early in the Phillies' season, Ruben Amaro Jr. left Nationals Park in Washington and stood on the sidewalk trying to flag down a taxi. There were Phillies fans everywhere, and one recognized Amaro. He asked to take a photo with the general manager.

Sure, Amaro said. A friend took the photo and that was that. But the fan had to make a point while he had the chance.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Amaro recalled him saying. "How could you trade Cliff Lee?"

Sitting in the visitors' dugout at AT&T Park during the National League Championship Series last week, Amaro laughed as he told the story.

"No one ever said he wasn't a good pitcher," Amaro said.

This is true. Lee will take the mound Wednesday night as the starter in Game 1 of the World Series for the second straight year. Last year, as a member of the Phillies, Lee struck out 10 Yankees and allowed an unearned run in a complete-game victory.

This year, he will face the Giants, the team that knocked the Phillies out of the postseason, as a member of the Texas Rangers, with everyone watching again.

Phillies fans will sit in front of their TVs and likely have flashbacks to last October at Yankee Stadium. Some Phillies players, Jayson Werth included, will watch for one purpose.

"I'm interested," Werth said, "to see Cliff pitch Game 1."

Well, Lee was interested in the Phillies, too, up until the very moment their season ended. He was watching the NLCS. Oh, he was watching closely.

"Kind of mixed emotions, to be honest with you," Lee said Tuesday. "I pulled for a lot of those guys, but it's weird, when a team gets rid of you, you kind of like seeing them lose a little bit."

That might sting a bit back in Philadelphia, where Lee remains a mythically beloved figure. But that was Lee being forthright: Who could blame him for wishing just a small dose of ill on the team that abruptly traded him last off-season to the Seattle Mariners?

"I know that's weird," Lee continued, "but part of me wanted them to win where I could face them in the World Series, too. It would have been a lot of fun."

It sure would have. Imagine Lee taking the mound at Citizens Bank Park for Game 1. The Phillies would have pitched the man who replaced him, Roy Halladay, against Texas. Think Lee would have been just a tad motivated?

"When a team gets rid of you," Lee said, "it's funny how you have a knack for stepping up a little more when you face them. There's a little more incentive to beat them, and that's definitely the case with me watching the game.

"I was in between. I didn't want to have to face them or want to have to face the Giants. I let that series play out, and I pulled for those guys individually, but I didn't mind seeing them get beat either, just because they got rid of me. That is what it is."

It is. So in a roundabout way, Lee returns to this city, where 15 months earlier he made his first start as a Phillie. He pitched a complete game that time, too.

"It does seem like a long time ago," Lee said.

Two teams later, Lee is pitching for the ring he never received in Philadelphia.

"He's a really good guy," Texas lefthander Derek Holland said. "He's humble. He fits right in with this team. He's a real low-key guy. He likes to have fun and goof off, just like us.

They said that in Philadelphia, too. And wherever Lee plays in 2011, teammates will likely say the same thing.

After the Rangers won the American League pennant, a jubilant Lee was asked about spurning Texas for the Yankees (who else?), the deep-pocketed favorites to acquire Lee this off-season.

"Free agency is when a player finally gets a choice, and I'm looking forward to that," Lee said. "There are so many things that can happen. I'm just more focused on helping this team win a World Series.

"If we do that, it would be hard to walk away."

The Phillies walked away from Lee, and they were so close to seeing him again. Instead, he'll attempt to add to his postseason legacy as his former team watches from home.