LITTLE ROCK — This is the last in a series profiling the 11 inductees into the Arkansas Sports Hall of
Fame. Ceremonies will be held tonight at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
On a warm Sunday in March 2000, Dave Malpass sat perched in the stands of Baum Stadium watching Arkansas as it tried to polish off a two-game sweep of Miami (Ohio).
The Montreal Expos sent him to Fayetteville to scout two Razorbacks prospects ahead of the June amateur draft.
Out of the bullpen strode a lanky and lean left-hander named Cliff Lee, whose four innings of relief in a 5-1 victory left Malpass convinced he’d made his best find in years of toting a radar gun and a stopwatch.
“I fell in love with his delivery, his athleticism, his arm action,” Malpass told The Plain Dealer in Cleveland newspaper several years ago. “After I saw him pitch, I put a big old number on him.”
Nearly a decade later, Malpass’ awe seems visionary, but he wasn’t the first to recognize that the Benton native could take a ball in hand, rear back and blitz batters with a fastball possessing equal parts precision and velocity.
That fastball was Lee’s bedrock on his way to a Cy Young award in Cleveland.
It made him a must-have commodity in consecutive World Series pushes by Philadelphia and Texas, and it was the basic commodity at the core of the six-year, $120 million contract he signed in December.
Surely, Lee’s 7-2 record and 2.13 ERA in the postseason only burnished his credentials as an autumn mercenary.
And, in many ways, the 32-year-old Lee’s mastery of that pitch paved the way for his induction tonight into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Yet, a cone of silence exists around Lee and his ascent from a pitcher projected as a No. 3 starter to a man so in demand that he was traded three times over two seasons.
Lee was not available for an interview for this story.
Those who have known Lee from the beginning said he’s content keeping any candid insights confined to a close circle of confidantes.
In the moments away from the diamond, usually in a duck blind near Stuttgart, he deferred on discussing possible free-agent destinations that included New York, Texas and Philadelphia.
“When Cliff and I talk, we don’t talk about the business aspect of the game,” said Mark Balisterri, Benton’s baseball coach who has known the pitcher since having him as a pupil in middle school. “I did mention it to him one time and he said, ‘I’ll be happy any of those three places. I’ll let my agent handle it.’ He felt like he was back at home.’”
Oddly, Lee’s signing with the Phillies, spurning roughly $30 million in additional pay from the Yankees and reportedly unable to secure a seventh contract year from the Rangers, only inspired more of the attention he seemingly abhors.
“He knows what he wants,” said Norm DeBriyn, Lee’s former coach at Arkansas. “He’s not going to stand on a rooftop and declare them for people to hear. There have to be reasons, and I don’t know what they are, but he’ll stand by them.
“You have to give him credit for that.”
Yet, the growing glare surrounding Lee wouldn’t have its switch flipped if he hadn’t mastered his fastball, an on and-off issue over his seven full seasons in Cleveland, where he went 76-39 with a 4.56 ERA.
In 2007, Lee strained his abdominal muscle in spring training and fought through command issues to a 5-8 record with a career-worst 6.29 ERA. After three consecutive starts where he surrendered at least seven earned runs, the Indians shipped him to Class AAA Buffalo.
When he was recalled in September, Manager Eric Wedge moved Lee to the bullpen, where he made three appearances as the Indians wrapped up an American League Central Division title and was left off the playoff roster.
“I saw a difference in him, the way he worked out, the way he approached everything physically,” Balisterri said. “A lot of people would have taken it as a slap in the face. He told me, ‘Heck, I wouldn’t pitch me.’ “
A season later, Lee made an about-face, reeling off a 22-3 record in 2008 with a 2.54 ERA and becoming the first Indians pitcher to win more than 20 games in a Cy Young season since Gaylord Perry won 24 in 1972.
In the years since, the pitcher’s profile has certainly been elevated, but Balisterri and DeBriyn remember a player who possessed the raw skills to evolve into a frontof-the-rotation pitcher but couldn’t guess how much his stock would climb.
“As a tenth-grader, I saw a kid that could absolutely bring it,” Balisterri said. “How fluid he was. He threw the ball hard and made it look effortless.”
Scouts took notice by the end of his junior season as Balisterri helped Lee harness his talent, and the phone started to ring. A principal at Benton Middle School, where Balisterri taught, had to buy another answering machine so Balisterri could handle all the calls that were coming in every day.
“I’d like to sit here and say [I knew] he was going to become a major league pitcher,” Balisterri said. “But looking back, all I knew then was that he had the potential.”
Lee, who originally committed to UALR, had injuries his senior season and wound up being drafted by the Florida Marlins in the eighth round of the 1997 amateur draft.
“He would not sign [a letter of intent] with us,” De-Briyn said. “He was drafted highly, but they didn’t offer him the money he wanted.”
So Lee went to Meridian (Miss.) Community College, where he hoped a solid year would boost his stock. Instead, he fell to the 20th round in 1998, selected by the Baltimore Orioles, and passed again on signing a deal. Lee then pitched a second season at Meridian and went undrafted.
“He kind of knew what he wanted and where he should go,” DeBriyn said.
Into the vacuum swooped DeBriyn, who lured Lee to Fayetteville, beating out LSU for his services. Once on campus, Lee left the legendary Razorbacks coach uttering the same praises as Malpass and Balisterri.
Yet, halfway through his junior season DeBriyn watched Lee wrestle with marshaling his fastball, making the choice to move him to the bullpen as a reliever.
“When he came in, his command was nothing like it was now,” DeBriyn said. “That’s his forte. It’s a process, and it takes it time.
“When he struggled with the fastball, being able to locate or command, hitters would know it and he got hit.We felt like we weren’t having a lot of success right there.”
At the same time, Lee’s stoic competitiveness flared and rumors circulated that he butted heads with coaches, a perception that wasn’t helped when he served a three-game suspension during a series against Kentucky for violating team rules.
“He would adhere to the system,” DeBriyn said. “He would push sometimes, too, like any young guy.”
But on his best days Lee could pound the strike zone with fastballs - working down away from left-handers and buzzing inside on right-handers while mixing in a curve and slider. He also possessed the art of deception, with pitches coming right out his glove and leaving hitters precious few milliseconds to decipher what the 6-3, 190-pound Lee hurled their way.
That was the Lee glimpsed by Malpass, who dialed up the Expos with the recommendation they draft Lee in the first round. Yet, with Lee’s reputation, it took an impassioned plea for the soon-to-be departed Montreal franchise to pluck the Arkansas product in the fourth round of the 2000 draft.
Two seasons later, he was part of a three-player package shipped to Cleveland for Bartolo Colon, a deal that hadto pay dividends for Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro. At the time, a member of the Indians brass sorted through a database of statistics and came to a conclusion: Lee might have the best trajectory of any pitching prospect in 15 years.
Yet, DeBriyn said conjecture is a way of life for those immersed in America’s pastime.
“You’re always looking at the potential you’ll see,” he said. “It’s a balancing act. You felt like you had a guy with the tools, but is he the guy you’re looking for?”
Evidently, Lee is a man in demand.
Sports, Pages 21 on 02/11/2011