Does Lee Signing Make The Phillies The Heat Of Baseball?

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There were a lot of fans, pundits, sports betting handicappers and even casual enthusiasts who complained when NBA superstar LeBron James signed with the Miami Heat to made a modern-day All-Star team.

Very quietly, the Philadelphia Phillies have done the same thing in Major League Baseball and it doesn’t seem to be of too much concern to the fans.

This past week, the Phillies signed – or re-signed, if you will – ace Cliff Lee to a five-year, $120 million contract and added him to an All-Star staff that already includes Cy Young winner Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt.

So what’s the difference between the two scenarios?

For one, there’s a significant difference in the sports. In the NBA, when you only start five players in your lineup, one-fifth of that lineup is a big deal. In baseball, pitching is very important but Lee won’t be as valuable to the Phillies as James will to the Heat. Lee will pitch once every five days while James will play 30+ minutes every single game.

Secondly, it’s also how the two went about their decision – pun intended. Admittedly, James is a bigger star and a bigger personality in his sport than Lee is in baseball. Lee didn’t go on national television in a modern day spectacle to announce his decision. He quietly and modestly reviewed all of the offers and made the choice that he felt was best for himself and his family. Had James shared that type of class, few people would be as livid with his choice.

There’s also a very different culture in the two sports. In baseball, the New York Yankees have been assembling All-Star casts for years, so it’s not a big surprise that somebody else is trying to follow their pattern. In the NBA, many fans just didn’t expect to see this type of similar pattern with the salary cap and luxury tax coming into play.

Nonetheless, the Phillies have assembled one of the best pitching rotations in MLB history – at least on paper – and with Lee, Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt, they should be a perennial World Series contender for at least the next half decade.