Yet soon after midnight, OFFICIAL tweets — if such things exist — confirmed that Lee had indeed signed a 5-year, $115 million deal with the Phillies, with an easy vesting option for a 6th year. The Yankees had offered a bigger 6-year deal. The Rangers had offered an even bigger 6-year deal with an option for a 7th year. Yet Cliff Lee picked the Phillies. Why in God’s name would you choose to play in front of the animals in Philadelphia? When he starts losing it by his 4th or 5th year of the contract, they’re going to be booing his ass off the mound.

Apparently, that contract has a higher AAV than the Yankee offer. Maybe that’s it. Maybe he wants to beat the Yankees and he sees the Phillies as his best shot. Maybe he really likes Roy Halladay. The obvious parallel is LeBron James signing with the Miami Heat, considering the contract totals less than two other offers, but it’s not at all the same. There wasn’t an entire city with an attachment to Lee, considering he’s been on four teams in the past two seasons, and Halladay is the better pitcher. But this deal does create a seemingly unstoppable team, and I don’t see them struggling out of the gate like the Heat.

A rotation of four aces doesn’t have to share the ball like two and a half basketball stars. Halladay, Lee, Hamels, and Oswalt will take the balls on their respective days and dominate the NL to the tune of a combined 3.25 ERA. The NL East is wrapped up for the next two years, possibly three. Sandy Alderson needs to work his magic to set up the Mets to win in three years, not now. Sigh. This is awful.

But it’s almost worth it when I listen to Yankees fans on WFAN who want them to buy every single  free agent on the market crying. Maybe they shouldn’t have spit on Lee’s wife.

Ruben Amaro, Jr.:

In 2006, the Tigers went from a 71-91 the previous season to the playoffs. This year, the Rays went from last place at 66-96 to a AL East division crown. The 2006 Tigers took down the Yankees on their way to the World Series. The 2008 Rays held off an epic 3-1 comeback by the Red Sox to reach the World Series. They both went on to lose the World Series in five games, to an NL team I DEFINITELY DID NOT want to see win a championship. Fuck everything.

I’ve mentioned before how I didn’t want the Rays to end up like the Tigers. Maybe I should’ve known history would repeat itself, but I thought they were better. They managed to be on top of the best division in baseball at the end of the regular season. They kept their shit together in Game 7 of the ALCS, when everyone thought they were done (including me). But then their bats went colder than Jose Reyes at the end of the 2007 season.

And that’s my awful segue into how embarrassed the Mets should feel right now. Everybody already hated them, and now the entire NL East is laughing at them. The past two years, they’ve been the prohibitive favorite to win the NL East, and both years they’ve choked in dramatic fashion. Meanwhile, the Phillies have quietly gotten better each year and have now reached the point the Mets have thought they deserved the past few years. Maybe this year the Mets will actually come out with a chip on their shoulder, instead of thinking that have the God-given right to a pennant. I try not to get into this type of intangible shit, but it’s impossible not to if you’ve watched the Mets the past few years. Goddamn it.

Getting back to what just transpired on my television set, I still can’t believe it was real. That wasn’t really the World Series, right? We didn’t just have another shit finale to the season, one which was delayed both by rain and a presidential candidate who already has the election wrapped up. And Brad Lidge did not just have a perfect season. Now I have to hear about Jimmy Rollins the whole offseason. FUCK. ME.

Hey the Knicks are going to be better this season, right?

*looks at basketball scoreboard*

Holy shit! They won! Isiah should try to kill himself and then say it was his daughter more often.

Let’s see. The Mets had a 4-2 lead going into the 9th inning against the Braves. The Jets were facing a Tom Brady-less Patriots team. And the Phillies had two games versus the Brewers. All of these things turned out as badly as possible. The Mets bullpen imploded for I believe the 462th time this year. I didn’t think that was possible — considering there’s only 162 games in a season — but they’ve done it. I should’ve figured it would happen 12 hours after I said the Mets shouldn’t pay K-Rod $15 million a year. The worst part about it is that Oliver Perez had a good game and I left him on my fantasy bench. I was going to set my Sunday roster the previous afternoon, but I told myself I’d do it that night. BUT I NEVER DID. I’m not sure if he would’ve lowered my ERA and WHIP enough to win either category, but I blew my only shot at winning the week.

Meanwhile, I didn’t get to watch much of the Jets game, but I know they lost, and that’s enough. And the Phillies swept their doubleheader against the seemingly permanently hungover Brewers. So now the Mets have only a 1 game lead in the NL East with the Phillies seemingly beginning to surge and the Jets look like they don’t have an open road to the division title after all. Maybe the Brewers will collapse so sharply that the Mets could grab the wild-card. But on the bright side, if they don’t make the playoffs I’ll have more time to study.