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Friend tells of Lee's workout Wednesday, May 28, 2008 By Harry King LITTLE ROCK - Fishing for Cliff Lee goodies, the cold-call conversation was routine until Scott Ritchey mentioned the pull-ups in the deer woods of Hempstead County. Ritchey coached the position players on the Benton American Legion team in the mid-90s when Lee was a pitcher under the tutelage of former major league pitcher Wes Gardner. The families had known each other for years - Ritchey's dad played softball with Lee's dad - and both men loved to hunt and fish, so the coach-player thing evolved into friendship. The call to Ritchey was about Lee's fast start this year and he said it was no accident. "He doesn't take things for granted," Ritchey said. "He worked out harder, lots of cardiovascular, on a pull-up bar his daddy made for him." Uh-huh. Even at deer camp near Hope, Ritchey said. What? Turns out, he and Lee loaded the contraption on a trailer and hauled it into the woods. At night, while others were asleep, Lee was working out. Ritchey tried to describe the homemade thingamajig - sort of a big square, with 4-foot sections of pipe, different levels that go up to about 8 feet, and two large ropes hanging down. "I never knew there were so many different ways to do pull-ups," Ritchey said. Lee is in Cleveland, Ritchey is in Benton, and the patent pending is in the woods, hopefully draped in orange. Lee and Ritchey talk almost daily, hardly ever about baseball. Mostly it's hunting and fishing and local news. Ritchey, his brother and dad flew to New York in early May to watch Lee and the Indians against the Yankees. Ritchey stayed in the Indians' hotel with Lee, but bailed out early on the day Lee was to pitch. "The streak he had been on, I didn't want to mess with nothing," Ritchey said.. That night, Lee pitched seven scoreless innings and improved to 6-0. At that point, his ERA was 0.81. According to Jon Heyman at SI.com, since the end of World War II, only three pitchers have won their first six starts with an ERA lower than Lee's - Fernando Valenzuela, 0.33, 1981; Roger Clemens, 0.73, 1991, and Pedro Martinez, 0.79, 1987. Back at the hotel, Lee spent more than a half-hour talking with wife Kristen and checking on their children, including 7-year-old Jaxon, whose leukemia has been in remission more than five years. While Lee was winding down, he talked some about different pitches and, knowing Ritchey is a big Yankees fan, teased his friend about twice striking out Derek Jeter. "Mentally, he was pretty exhausted after the game," Ritchey said. "Physically as well, but mostly mentally." He beat Texas during the weekend to get to 7-1, his ERA is a league-best 1.50, and he is in line to be the American League starting pitcher in the All-Star game. A 32-game winner over 2005-06, he began the 2007 season on the disabled list, had an ERA of 6.29 in 20 games, was booed off the mound in Cleveland and was demoted in July. On the subway - a guy making $4 million a year and riding the subway got my attention - from Yankee Stadium to the hotel, some Cleveland fans recognized him. "They started hollering out, 'There's Cliff Lee,' and he started looking the other way, 'Like where?'" Ritchey said. Although not particularly outgoing, he graciously posed for pictures and signed autographs. By the end of the year, those might be bring top dollar on E-Bay. ------- Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com. |
