Nightengale: Lester lured by Cubs misery, history
CHICAGO -- Jon Lester, with his old uniform number monogrammed on his shirt sleeves and metal deer as cuff links, became the first free agent to sign with a team because of its history as a lovable loser.
Seriously.
If the Chicago Cubs had won a World Series in the past couple of years or even in our lifetime, Lester likely would not have been signing his six-year, $155 million deal as the richest player in franchise history.
If the San Francisco Giants still had not won a World Series since 1954, Lester might have been spending Monday on Fisherman's Wharf grabbing seafood with his new bosses.
Or if the Boston Red Sox had never traded him in July to the Oakland Athletics, he said, he likely would be back in Boston, spending all but two months of career in one uniform.
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Yet as Lester divulged Monday, he has had this burning desire for the last 10 years.
You see, as much pride as he took in being the Red Sox ace and winning two World Series championships, there was this passion, bordering on jealousy, lurking.
He was drafted by the Red Sox in 2002 but wasn't called up to the big leagues in time to be part of the magical 2004 team that ended an 86-year curse. Sure, he won rings in 2007 and 2013. He got the duck-boat parade treatment and was treated like royalty in New England.
Still, it wasn't the same as being a member of the 2004 team, winning the first World Series title in Boston since 1918.
"Those guys will live as legends forever," Lester said. "This takes nothing away from Dave Roberts, but he stole one base. And he's a legend.
"I didn't get to be a part of it in '04."
And he made sure he's not going to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in Chicago.
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't think they were going to win in 2015," Lester said. "I'm never going to say, 'Well, we'll be all right this year, and we'll get them next year.' I'm going in with the intention of winning in 2015.
"That means the division.
"That means the World Series.
"That means everything."
This is why Lester insisted on a no-trade clause throughout his contract, the first one Theo Epstein has granted since becoming Cubs president three years ago. Lester even got private plane service for his family, making sure they can be with him during the playoffs.
Lester is chasing history, wanting to become the first player to win World Series titles with the Cubs and Red Sox.
"To see what it did to the organization, how it changed the perception," Lester said of that 2004 team. "That was one of the reasons that led us here."
Ah, yes, everyone knows the story.
The Billy Goat Curse. The black cat. Steve Bartman. And a whole lot of lousy baseball.
"What's it been, 105, 106 (years), what is it?" said Lester, who didn't bring his calculator to the dais at the news conference.
Said Epstein: "107 years."
"I don't look at it as a curse," Lester said as he embarked on a recounting of the fateful Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series. "I try not to blame things on curses or superstitions. What if (Moises) Alou jumped up and it hits off the heel of his glove. It ruins that guy's (Bartman) life, and they blame it on a curse."
No wonder Epstein and the Cubs front office showered Lester with gifts during the free agent courting process. They put him up in the presidential suite at the Four Seasons in Chicago and proceeded to do everything from sending flowers to his wife, Farrah, to bottles of wine to even camouflage Cubs caps for Lester's deer- and duck-hunting expeditions.
"I was ready to soak myself in deer urine if that's what it took," Epstein said,
Uh, that wasn't necessary, Lester said.
As Lester kept wrestling with his decision — and while his agents, Sam and Seth Levinson, were meeting with Epstein until 5 in the morning on several occasions at the winter meetings in San Diego — he kept going back to the possible thrill of being on the first Cubs team to win a World Series since 1908.
There have been 1,686 men who have played for the Cubs since then.
"To be a part of something like that would truly be special and unbelievable," Lester said. "That's another added thing I want to be part of."
Sure, Lester knows he could win Cy Young Awards and plenty of games if he signed with the Giants. The Giants have not only won three of the last five World Series, but the pitching-friendly NL West also has produced 12 of the last 16 NL Cy Young winners.
If it were just about putting up numbers, Lester would be a Giant today, and he says he'll always be grateful to All-Star catcher Buster Posey for taking the trouble to travel three hours each way to his Atlanta home to assist the Giants in the recruiting process.
If it were just about comfort, he definitely would have stayed with the Red Sox, particularly with All-Star second baseman Dustin Pedroia's constant bombardment of text messages and phone calls trying to make sure he came back. The hardest call he made, Lester said, was informing Pedroia he was joining the Cubs.
Really, the wounds were self-inflicted by the Red Sox's front office by trading away Lester in July. Sure, it might have been a smart baseball move at the time, getting slugger Yoenis Cespedes, whom they dealt last week for Rick Porcello, but it cost them Lester.
"I think if we finished out the year in Boston, this decision ... would have been a lot harder," Lester said.
The Cubs indeed plan to win, and win now. They even disclosed their strategy to Lester in a 15-minute video, telling him whom they plan to target on the trade market next summer and the free agent market next winter.
"There's always that blind faith," Lester said. "I believe in these guys, what they told me. Whether that's from the fact I knew them before, I could kind of tell whether they're BS-ing me.
"If they are, they did a good job."
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