All season long, I have heard the righteous complaints about the Yankee pitching staff. Most of it has been well-deserved. Moose hurt his elbow. Brown battled a bad back, parasites, and his own inner demons. Javy admits that he has no idea what he is doing out there. (How much is George paying him for 4 years?) El Duque was lightning in a bottle, but the lightning has up and leaked out. And then Mel was spending ungodly hours babysitting Contreras until July 31, when he began trying to get Loaiza interested in being a big league pitcher.

Illustration by Chuck Lockhart.

During all this uncertainty, Jon Lieber pitched, and pitched well. After being out for a year-and-a-half with Tommy John surgery, he seemed to get stronger with every start. He posted an 11-3 record at home. He no-hit the Red Sox into the 7th inning. He made an art form out of wiggling out of jams. He worked quickly and kept his fielders in the game. He barely broke a sweat on the warmest of nights.

And when Lieber did have the occasional bad game, he didn’t complain about his surgically repaired arm. He took the loss like a man and got ready for his next start.

Yet Lieber got very little respect. Most callers on the Fan or ESPN were waiting for him to implode, like each of the other Yankee starters had at some point this year.

When all the other Yankee starters were going 11-17 in the latter part of the season, Lieber went 7-1 over his last ten starts. And his 0.92 walks per nine innings led the league.

It’s not a stretch to say that Jon Lieber was as responsible as anyone that the Yanks won 101 games this year.

But even those who appreciated Jon’s contributions would temper their enthusiasm by stating that he has not won a big game yet. “Let’s see what he does in the playoffs. Sure he won 20 with the Cubs…but that doesn’t count here.”

Last night Jon Lieber pitched as gutty a performance as you can ask. Down 1-0 in the best of 5, after an excruciating loss to the Twins, this was a must win game for the Yanks and Lieber did his part. He wasn’t dominant. But he kept the Yanks in the game—despite numerous squandered scoring opportunities by his team—by making the necessary adjustments early and putting up zeros for his last 4 2/3 innings.

Jon Lieber’s contributions may get lost in all the theatrics of last night’s game. There were many other heroes besides him. A-Rod and Tanyon deserve their accolades. But the Yanks were in a position to win because of Lieber.

When Joe took him out in the 7th, Lieber asked if he could hold on to the ball as a memento. It will look good on his fireplace mantel this winter.

Last night Jon Lieber became a Yankee.



Phil Allard is a freelance writer and a member of the NYYFANS community. You can reach him at hardrain@optonline.net