Cliff Lee lowers the boom on Diamondbacks

OTR took a break from typing genius posts from their Mac Pro with dual, dual 2.66 Ghz processors to actually go see one of these sporting events that we keep hearing so damn much about. That’s right, OTR’s Micah Warren (me….don’t know why I’m typing my name in the third person) was able to finagle, through his infinite Rolodex of high-level contacts, tickets to see Philadelphia Phillies’ stud Cliff Lee dual Arizona Diamondbacks’ manchowder (that was meant as a compliment….did it come off as one?) face off Wednesday night at Citizen’s Bank Park in Raleigh, NC.

Warren, who attended the game with Fooks, Jr., Cousin Anthony and V., was tonight’s big performer despite Lee’s complete-game, one-run, two-hit, 11-strikeout display on the mound. It was Warren who had to sit next to the “I go to 60 games a year all by myself and I want to talk about baseball and annoy you with stupid jokes that aren’t remotely funny” dude. It was painful.

We played the bleacher game, which was fun. Ever played the bleacher game? OTR first learned it in Chicago at Wrigley Field back in 2004. You take an empty cup and everyone puts $3 in (I’m sure there are variations on this rule). Then you designate an order that the cup will be passed. After each batter, you pass the cup. If the batter gets a hit, the person holding the cup can take a dollar from the cup. If the batter gets a HR, the person with the cup gets the whole thing. If your batter makes an out or walks or whatever, then you get nothing, pay the cup an additional dollar and then pass the cup to the next person. That’s pretty much how it works. Oh, and the person holding the cup for the final out gets to clear the cup and fatten their wallet.

Micah got smoked for the first seven innings. He put a ton of cash into a game that he clearly wasn’t winning. Jason Werth’s 2nd HR and holding the cup for the final out changed all that. Does anyone care? Of course not.

But, on to the in-game analysis:

There are some things that you just won’t be able to see on a television broadcast of a sporting event. Sometimes, you just have to be at the game. So in saying that, here are some OTR notes on what we saw first-hand at Wednesday night’s Phillies/D-Backs game:

There were definitely some guys that got a lot of hits. Some guys didn’t, but that wasn’t always the case. There were some pitchers that played tonight, like Lee, who threw some strikes, but at some points threw balls. At times, some batters weren’t able to make good contact with the baseball and so it went foul. Not that this happened every time, but there were times when it did. Overall, the Phillies won 8-1 and many of their players were showing positive body language on the field. We don’t know if this was shown on TV. Oh, and there were also times when runners wouldn’t be able to get to a base by just standing up, so they had to slide in the dirt. It was definitely crazy.

And that sums up OTR’s trip to Citizen’s Bank Park.