Charlie Manuel Didn't Think Cliff Lee Had The Onions For Game 4

Curt Schilling. Jack Morris. Josh Beckett.  Andy Pettitte. All of them memorably pitched in the World Series on three days’ rest.  Most of them did it on the grandest of stages without much of a history of previously doing so.  Those performances are now part of their mystique and aura. Cliff Lee seems destined to join them.

Despite the fact that Cliff Lee absolutely dominated the Yankees in Game 1, Charlie Manuel did not pitch Lee tonight in pivotal Game 4 (How pivotal? 77 of the last 104 WS Champs won Game 4).  As far as Lee was concerned, he was ready:

“I just let [Manuel] know I’d pitch whenever he wants me to pitch.”

Unfortunately for Lee (and Phillie fans), it might be too late by the time he does.  Charlie decided not to pitch Lee in Game 4.  His reasoning?  Cliff Lee doesn’t have the cojones….at least…that’s what his reasoning implies…

“You’re asking Cliff Lee to do something that he has never done before,” Manuel said. “But we’re also asking him to do it in a very big, important place, and that’s in the World Series. I didn’t have to think very long at all about that.”

Next time, Charlie.  Think a little longer.

— Words by Sean Keeley