Yankee Fans Never Spit Nor Threw Beer On Cliff Lee's Wife

Lee dismissed the idea that he spurned the Yankees because of harassment of his wife by New York fans during the American League Championship Series.

“That was way overblown,” he said. “It was false and had zero to do with the whole thing.”

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-15/pitcher-cliff-lee-signs-five-year-120-million-agreement-with-phillies.html

 

Another quote I really love from Cliff Lee was this one...

“There’s plenty of money,” he said. “When you hit a certain point, enough’s enough. It’s just a matter of where you are comfortable, where you are happy.”

Yea the last quote is great.

Its a cryptic way of saying no matter how much the Yankees wanted to offer me there was no way I was going there.

Cliff Lee is my favorite non Oriole player.

I'm trying to tell people that even if this whole spitting thing did happen, that it didn't affect his decision. No way he goes to his wife and say, "You know what? I'll make it up to you. For the fans spitting on you, I'll take $40 million less. How does that sound?"

The contract offer in Texas was a lot as well. If he was in it for the money, and didn't like that the fans spit on his wife, he would have simply taken their offer. The fact that he took the less years and less money tells everyone that he WANTED to go back to Philly. His quotes say it all.

He knew he had a much better chance to win it all. with philly

https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2010/10/26/Lees-wife-Yankees-fans-spit-threw-beer/UPI-47241288129870/

Well...you have a quote with no video evidence. While I have a quote that he said in a press conference while asking a question that was broadcasted on the MLB Network.

I'll stand by the quote I read and heard.

I'd say the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.........stuff probably happened, but IT PROBABLY WAS overblown........and Cliff Lee probably just wanted to take the high road on that whole situation at this point

I'm sure fans said a bunch of shit...but spitting and beer throwing...eh.

cmon sparky it's a quote from his wife, no big deal, there are asshole fans everywhere, including yankee stadium.

I think it had a little to do with lee signing in philly, plus they like it there.

don't mattetr, i know you are very nervous about the yanks strting pitching, as you should be.

Well I don't know.....but I'm not about to believe opposing fans/wives have never had things thrown at them or been spit at in Yankees stadium........as much as 95% of this forum likes to act like only Philadelphia fans are savages, that kind of stuff happens at sporting events everywhere.......especially in bigger cities

I had beer thrown at me at Yankee stadium when I was 12 years old and wearing a Orioles hat and jersey.

For Sparky to act like this did not happen and Cliff Lee's wife is lying is denial at its finest.

So you're saying Cliff Lee is the one lying? It's easy to take the side of one that makes the fans look bad right?

sparky, you are generally pretty levelheaded and reasonable, um, you are grasping at straws here.

It was a scam. His wife made it all up because she wanted him to go to Philly. Makes sense now.

Fuck You Mrs. Lee.

Bless you Mrs. Lee.....

I also heard somewhere that Philly has the best facility for his son and his condition. Not sure if this is true...just something I've heard. Certainly may have helped.

I honestly think it was a lot of things.......he even said in his first interview at the airport last night something like....."a whole lotta pros and not many cons" (to coming back to Philly)

-he had been here before and liked the players, coach, atmosphere (yes even the fans boys)

-he keeps mentioning the starting staff, so he thinks this is the best chance to win I think

-maybe his son did play a part

-and I don't know for a fact, but I'd guess his wife, all things being equal, didn't want to go to New York

Put it altogether, if the Phillies got close in money, thats what he wanted.........I don't think any one thing played a huge part

It was not just Lee's wife who claimed she had beer spilled on and spat at....other players of the Rangers wives' have claimed the same thing. 

Lee's statements are him being politically correct...it happened, I didn't even know that there was skeptism and yankee fans thought otherwise of the claims until seeing this thread.

The yankee fan base and the eagles fan base are the most obnoxious in sports...there is no getting around how those two groups act at sporting events towards out of towners...just how it is...

Sparky, Lee DID NOT say it never happened. If you read correctly, he is saying that the whole thing that got blown out of portion was that people thought that that was the reason he spurned the Yankees, not the spitting STORY ITSELF WAS BLOWN OUT OF PORTION.

He had his son 2 years ago, so why did he leave in the FIRST PLACE. His son had NOTHING to do with this signing. Just a story out their. He chose the Phillies for money. I know most people won't see this, but on next years tax form, playing for the Phillies with this contract, he will be putting down a number that is HIGHER than if he signed the  TX or Yankees contract. He is making more yearly money, but not total money.

I wish the guy luck, seems to be a alright dude. No different than any other athlete trying to get paid, and he is getting paid. Would like to see a Philly V. TX World Series, now that would be FUN.

He didnt pick Philly BECAUSE of the $, you dolt!  The Rangers, all told, offered more guaranteed money, because their deal would've included an extra year.  Soo, to be clear, the Rangers deal was more $ total, somewhere around 12-15 million more, so no, he did not go to Philly b/c they paid him more overall $, thats not the case.  The average per year is about the same, but with the extra year from the Rangers, that deal was worth more.