Lester Borrows From Tebow

After yet another disappointing outing from 25-year old Jon Lester, he let his frustrations out in the open in his post-game press conference.

“"With that being said, I can promise you that there hasn't been a pitcher that's worked harder than I have from the beginning of the season, and there won't be a pitcher for the remainder of the season that will work as hard as I will to get back to where I've been in the past. I don't think we're far. I think it's just little things right now that are screwing up my outings. Hopefully, no, not hopefully, it will turn around. It will turn around here in the future."

After hearing this sound bite I couldn’t help but make the connection to Tim Tebow’s classic sermon to the media last fall.

"You will never see any player in the entire country who will play harder than I will play the rest of the season. And you will not see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody for the rest of the season, and you will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season."

While there are definite differences in the two, you would be ignorant too ignore their similarities. Both have vowed to become the hardest working player in their sport and like Tebow, Lester also committed to winning games for his teammates earlier in the media session.

After Tebow made his speech, Florida went on to win the remainder of their games including a national championship victory over Oklahoma. As for the speech, it is now engraved on the wall outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville. Although, I don’t foresee Lester winning the rest of his starts, nor will his words be chiseled into the wall outside gate C, but I do believe he will turn things around and continue moving forward with his career.

Brian B