While he's now a closer corollary to city-wide anxiety, Brad Lidge was once the toast of baseball's game-sealers. And apparently, according to an interview with Lidge on 97.3 ESPN Radio South Jersey, that bought him at least a renegotiation talk with the Phillies before this off-season. And before Lidge decided to take the pulse of a few feelers.

Why did Lidge snub his eventual reciprocal snubber? Simple: He thought he could still close, and wanted to see what other MLB teams agreed with him. Unfortunately for Lidge, none did.

But it got worse: When he checked back in with the Phillies to see if that "door" was still "open," the team respectfully declined. As you can imagine, Lidge was pretty bummed out about it.

Said Lidge: "I came back to the Phillies and I said, 'Let's talk. My heart's still here. It never left. Let's see what we can do.' Unfortunately, at that time, they had changed their mind and didn't have a contract for me."

Who continued: "Yeah, it's disappointing. I'm not crying about it or nothing. I understand it's all business and that's part of it. But it was disappointing and unfortunate because of course I did want to come back to Philadelphia."

After he explained: "I think they knew ... I was going to explore that opportunity (to sign on with an MLB team as its closer)."

Where he was the architect, for record, of the greatest bit of relief pitching in franchise history for the Phils in 2008, when he went 41-for-41 with a 1.10 ERA (in save situations) en route to a World Series. His numbers ballooned in 2009, though, right about when his poise (and fan confidence in him) fell apart.

Lidge signed on with Washington for a one-year deal worth $1 milllion.

 

 

 

 

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