Leiter won Game One in relief, a game in which Curt Schilling couldn't hold on to three leads the Phillies had given him.
But I'm curious as to how House, Rick, Cliff, and the Trouts think about Leiter.
After all, th
e Blue Jays carried him for years while he was battling his blister problems. The lefty earned two World Series rings. And when he became a free agent at the conclusion of the 1995 season, Leiter bolted for the Florida Marlins.
e Blue Jays carried him for years while he was battling his blister problems. The lefty earned two World Series rings. And when he became a free agent at the conclusion of the 1995 season, Leiter bolted for the Florida Marlins.Yes, so did Devon White.
Yes, losing Robbie Alomar to division rival Baltimore was bad, too.
Leiter's case, however, was different.
There was no hard feelings in White's signing with Florida (he wanted to be closer to his father, who lived in Jamaica, and Miami would be a shorter trip), while Alomar left the Blue Jays on bad terms and was unhappy during the latter half of the '95 season.
With the relatively young Leiter (who was finally coming off a good season), the Jays were looking to rebuild, and looked at the lefty as the key in their rotation. They felt Leiter owed them, for not giving up on him throughout his injuries.
Leiter, however, had other ideas, and left.
There was certainly a lot of bitterness from the Blue Jays. Paul Beeston, President and CEO of the Jays, wanted Leiter to lose every game in a Marlins uniform.
Leiter did win another World Series ring with the '97 Marlins, and pitched in the postseason for the Mets in 1999 and 2000.
Leiter, however, would never win a postseason start in his career, and wouldn't win a game in playoff action again (aside from his aforementioned '93 relief win) until his final appearance, in the 2005 ALDS vs. the Angels while a member of the New York Yankees.
So, House, Rick, Cliff, and the others: how does Al Leiter rank in your books? Traitor? Winner? Legend? Please comment.
2 comments:
Oh man, at the time I was really angry with Leiter. I suppose if I cared enough now I still would be, but you hit it dead-on. They brought him here, paid him a ton of money to rest his aching wounds for years, and the moment he could have done something to assist he bailed. He really should have signed at least a single year extension and showed he had some stones.
I guess if anyone cared, they would have been amused by his performance in one of the 1997 WS games where he walked a ton of hitters and got lit up in a 14-11 contest vs. the Indians.
Plus he was knocked out in the first inning of an NLCS game against the Braves without retiring a hitter.
Fun times to be sure...
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