Jon Lieber

       

Profile

Jon Lieber was a pitcher in MLB for 14 years with a number of teams.  His best season was his 2001 season where he logged 20 wins, an All-Star appearance and finished 4th in Cy Young voting with the Chicago Cubs*.  Jon was born in Council Bluffs and played for Iowa Western CC**.

* Des Moines native Kevin Tapani also was on the team

** MLBers from Iowa Western:  Joe Bisenius, Jason Christiansen, Tony Ghelfi, Jeremy Horst, Dan Johnson, Russ Morman, Scott Pose and Erik Swanson

Personal Notes

If you are not from Iowa, you should know that Iowa has 4 seasons.  I personally think its the four seasons you are accustomed to, but some in Iowa will tell you the are early Winter, Winter, late Winter and Summer.  Regardless of which you believe, Iowa has some rough, cold weather for an extended part of the year, which is not ideal for baseball.  

MLBers from Iowa are not overwhelming, and it seems that a majority of the players coming to the majors now are pitchers.  Off the top of my head, Joel Hanrahan, Tony Watson, Michael Wacha, Jeremy Hellickson, Kevin Tapani, and of course Lieber. (Obviously Bob Feller, but I'm thinking this century).  I imagine that hitters just get to see more pitches in the warmer states and pitchers arms have a pitch count, so winters off are just fine for our Iowa players. 

Collection Notes

I have 81/624 (13%) cards in my collection.