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Ex-Marlin Lee looks foward to September

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Lee looks forward to September

Published March 7, 2004

 

 

MESA, Ariz.? The cell-phone calls have been going back and forth all spring, old teammates vowing the game is on now that they have been torn asunder.

 

"Oh, yeah, we're talking big smack," ex-Marlin Derrek Lee says of his old mates. "I wish we played them before September."

 

The other night, Dontrelle Willis called and left a message for the new Chicago Cubs first baseman. Hearing it later, Lee couldn't help but laugh.

 

"Dontrelle is talking the biggest smack," Lee says. "He's saying he's going to get me."

 

Lee's measured response: "All right, if you get me, you can yell and scream, but if I hit a home run off you, I'm walking halfway to first base."

 

Really? D-Lee? Mr. Class and Composure? The guy who never showed anybody up in six years with the Marlins?

 

"I'm going to do it," he says, dissolving into laughter again. "I'm going to pimp one."

 

Carl Pavano has called. So have Brad Penny, Josh Beckett and Juan Pierre among the numerous Marlins who already miss Lee badly as a teammate and a run producer and a defensive security blanket.

 

Not that Lee is completely innocent of making biting comments.

 

"I told JP to set his vacation a little earlier this year," Lee says, "because they're not going to the World Series."

 

On and on it goes. And will go, all the way to September, when the clubs will have all six of their scheduled meetings in a span of 10 days.

 

Lee's laughter, smile and relaxed mood aren't for show. He would have preferred staying with the Marlins after helping them to that long-awaited breakthrough last year. But if he had to go somewhere else, anywhere else, the North Side of Chicago was a pretty good landing spot. It sure beats Baltimore, which came after him first this winter and landed him in a provisional trade (that he subsequently quashed).

 

His father, Leon Lee, spent a handful of years running the Cubs' international scouting operation. In fact, it was the elder Lee who signed Korean slugger Hee Seop Choi, who came to the Marlins in the Lee trade last November.

 

After years of seeing his massive blasts die on the warning track in deep right center at Pro Player Stadium, Lee gets to try out his all-fields swing at cozy Wrigley Field.

 

After seeing his name in annual trade rumors the past several season, Lee recently signed his first multiyear deal. Cubs management wasted little time locking him up for the next three years at $22.5 million.

 

"It's a great feeling," Lee says. "I don't think it changes the way you approach the game, but in the back of your mind it's a security feeling. You know for three years you've got a job, making some good money. That's what you play for, to get that security."

 

His wife likes the city, too. Thinks it will be a good place to raise young Jada, born last season and already "getting big, eating everything in sight," Lee says. "Whoever invented diapers is doing well."

 

Then there's Cubs manager Dusty Baker, who has known Lee since the player's child-hood. In fact, Lee was 11 when he attended the Dusty Baker Baseball School at Sacramento City College in 1986.

 

"I remember him," Baker says. "I thought he was going to be a basketball player. He was so tall and he could play. On his mom's side of the family, the Fontaines, boy, they could play some basketball."

 

Lee eventually signed to play college ball for Dean Smith at North Carolina. Of course, he never made it there, opting instead for a pro baseball career after the Padres took him in the first round.

 

Shortly after spring camp began, however, Baker ran afoul of his first baseman. Looking at Lee's massive wing-span, Baker nicknamed him "Rodan'' after the pterodactyl from the Godzilla movies.

 

One of the Chicago writers found a picture of Rodan on the Internet and printed it out for Lee, who wasn't too keen on the comparison.

 

"It's like a dinosaur, no, a dragon with big old wings," Lee says. "Sort of a cute dragon."

 

Lee gives a small shudder.

 

"That was supposedly the comparison, our wingspan," he says. "I told them we've got to shut that down right now before the fans start yelling `Rodan' at me. Dusty hasn't called me that to my face yet."

 

Behind Lee's back, his new skipper is already saying all kinds of nice things. Baker knows what he has in Lee.

 

A defensive force that will save dozens of runs each year. A natural offensive power that learns to control the strike zone more each year and could hit 40 homers this year.

 

The sort of player Marlins watchers might learn to fully appreciate now that he's gone.

 

"We're just going to let him prosper and blossom and just get better and better," Baker says. "I followed him big time over the years. It took him awhile to get it together, but he's got it together now. And he's going to keep it together for a while, I think."

Copyright ? 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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MVPosey All-Star

MVPosey

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that has got to be one of the dumbest trades in the offseason, trading derek lee for hee seop choi

So is not keeping Rich Aurilla, Jose Cruz Jr., and Jeff Kent (Last year). letting go of Cruz was the right thing. He was garbage, and is one of the worst clutch hitters in baseball. We didn't have a choice with Kent, he wanted out, and we're better off for it. He's a cancer and Durham is almost as good and a lot cheaper.

Letting go of Aurilia was a mistake though, he really wanted to come back and is much better than Neifi Perez, but MacGowan insisted on cutting payroll so we were unable to keep him because of that.

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MVPosey All-Star

MVPosey

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that has got to be one of the dumbest trades in the offseason, trading derek lee for hee seop choi

yeah how dumb to save a couple million and get a young rising star :rolleyes: yeah, trade one of the best first basemen in baseball for a mediocre first baseman just to save a few million.

At least they could have gotten a couple prospects thrown in

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farmer_fran All-Star

farmer_fran

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that has got to be one of the dumbest trades in the offseason, trading derek lee for hee seop choi

yeah how dumb to save a couple million and get a young rising star :rolleyes: yeah, trade one of the best first basemen in baseball for a mediocre first baseman just to save a few million.

At least they could have gotten a couple prospects thrown in We did, we got Mike Nannini who was one of their best pitching prospects.

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