| Doug Benton. 17th June, 2005 - 2:34 am
 Granted, the season is just one-third done, but Derek Lee is on his way to making this a season for the generations. Not since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 has a player won the coveted Triple Crown, in which a player must lead his respective league in home runs, runs batted in, and batting average. Lee has a realistic chance at this in a year that his baseball world changed.
Derek Lee came to the Friendly Confindes of Wrigley Field last season with the expectations that he was the missing piece to a World Series title. However, the season was a disaster from the beginning and saw Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou leave town, which left the power outage square on Lee’s 6-foot-5 frame. Lee has not disappointed as he currently stands at 18 home runs, 56 RBI, and a .385 batting average, all leading marks at the present time.
Lee always was thought to have exceptional talent and routinely showed it in the field by saving the pitching staff about a run a game with his prowess of picking ball at first base. However, he could never pull himself over the hill at the dish, which led to talk of when or if he would reach his vast potential.
The doubters now have turned to supports as Lee has carried an average line-up to the brink of the wild card, even with injuries to Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Carlos Zambrano, and a revolving door at the closer position.
Through it all, Lee has kept his calm demeanor to lead the Cubs by example, in a year they lost their leader for the past decade in Sammy Sosa. Many thought that the leader would come from some other place, maybe Wood or Prior, but Lee stepped into the role just as he does a belt high fastball over the plate.
Just like his manager Dusty Baker, Lee hails from Sacramento, CA and has created a nice relationship with Baker. The relationship is similar to the one Baker had with another slugger in San Francisco, Barry Bonds. If he keeps up at this torrid pace for another month or two, Lee is bound to face pressures that also plagued Bonds during some of his historic chases. With the return of Wood and Prior on the horizon, Lee will be able to shift the focus off of his historic quest and onto the fact that the quiet guy at first is leading the Cubs on a playoff run. |
