It could be Cliff Lee’s last start for Texas
Reporting from Arlington, Texas
This could be the end of a whirlwind romance, or not.
Cliff Lee starts for the Texas Rangers on Monday to keep his team alive.
“It’s basically the last start of the season for me,” Lee said. “I want to do everything I can to help this team win the World Series.”
The New York Yankees have made clear Lee is their No. 1 priority. As the Angels learned all too well in the Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia sweepstakes, the Yankees are happy to take a team’s best offer, add $20 million to it and dare the player to leave it on the table.
“We’re going to go after Cliff Lee — hard,” Rangers co-owner Bob Simpson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “We have the financial firepower to do that. Guys like Josh Hamilton, we will take care of those guys.”
Wild chatter
Commission Bud Selig on the likelihood of adding a second wild-card team in each league, which would enable 10 of 30 teams to be in the playoffs: “Ten out of 30, I think, is a rational mix.”
He stressed that club owners — his bosses — have made clear the regular season would not be shortened.
“I’m a devotee of a shorter season,” he said. “They’re not.”
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
