Posted: Monday, October 19, 2009, 6:33 PM | 16 comments |
 

Durbin and pal in Cliff Lee tweetfest
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Chad Durbin pitched a scoreless ninth inning last night to conclude Cliff Lee’s eight-inning masterpiece.   He and a friend spent the next day lavishing tweeted praise on the Phils ace.

 

The Twitter account shared by Durbin and his business partner Jake Chapman, @showcaseU, was abuzz with praise about Lee’s performance.  Showcase U provides assistance to amateur athletes attempting to market themselves to college and professional scouts.

           

The Chuck Norris-esque one-liners began soon after the game and appeared steadily into the afternoon.  Chapman, who pitched in the minor leagues for seven years (“great guy and great lefty,” Durbin said) actually did the tweeting, soliciting contributions from Durbin.

 

A sampling:

 

Can Cliff Lee pitch on one night's sleep?...Did you know? 4 days a week, Cliff Lee works as the Philly Phanatic...Cliff Lee just made breakfast for my family...stay hot!..I heard Cliff Lee just dunked on Andre Iguodala during a Sixers walk-through this morning. Amazing....I pulled Cliff Lee's finger and gold coins filled his shorts…Cliff Lee counted to infinity...twice...the boogie man checks under his bed at night, he's checking for Cliff Lee.

 

Tweet away, Chad and Jeff.

 
Posted by Andy Martino @ 6:33 PM  Permalink | 16 comments
16
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:52 PM, 10/19/2009
    Andy, no offense, but you seriously need to return as a writer for your high school newspaper. What editor approved this as newsworthy?
    — Manor2009
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:03 PM, 10/19/2009
    You sound like a very nice and fun person.
    — Andy Martino
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:05 PM, 10/19/2009
    I like it
    — MD20202020
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:19 PM, 10/19/2009
    Manor, are you kidding? This is a blog AND this is funny. Pop open a cold one and settle in for the game.
    — oldecityslicker
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:25 PM, 10/19/2009
    Andy, I follow @ShowcaseU as well. Those tweets are a riot. Many people aren't up on social media, including blogs. Manor2009 is one such individual. Many Dodgers fans are sadly behind the times.
    — CenterCityPhan
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:44 PM, 10/19/2009
    Howard is on a roll! Back to the game. Kitten killer--you're a fool.
    — spinmeister
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:55 PM, 10/19/2009
    Wow, there's a lot of hostility here. I thought the tweets were hilarious. Some of you guys should leave your EAGLES frustration on another board......
    — Erich H
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:58 PM, 10/19/2009
    I'm with you, Erich. You can't fix stupid.
    — spinmeister
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:38 AM, 10/20/2009
    It's so great that people log onto this site, give you page views and post because they don't like the content. On topic, I liked it better when Chad tweeted himself. And the Chuck Norris gag is beyond old.
    — jason14
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:23 AM, 10/20/2009
    To the knuckhead that wrote this column. Go read Bill Lyons column today in the Inquirer. Maybe you will learn a bit about writing. I get it ... you love your I phone. Here, I will give you a topic to write about. If you have not been paying attention the MLB Network has been playing classic Phils/Dodgers games from the 70's.... do I have to keep explaining? Get busy son.
    — Jonny U
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:12 AM, 10/20/2009
    I could care less about the grammatical correctness of Andy's blog posts. What I do care about is that on the morning after one of the great Phillies wins of all time, we get to read about twitter posts between Chad Durbin and his business partner. I'm sure things were crazy last night, Andy, but here's a thought: Dash off a quick blog post telling us a little bit about what it was like behind the scenes as that comeback unfolded last night. Just a few lines isn't asking too much, is it? The point is that there should be a post... SOMETHING... about last night's game so fans who still want to follow the blog can check it out and get a discussion going. Is that really so hard to do?
    — bobby
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:52 AM, 10/20/2009
    Bobby, you hit the nail on the head. Surely Mr. Martino, a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, could have come up with something more interesting on the morning after one of the most exciting Phillies games this season. To me, this tweet stuff is boring and nonsensical. Actually, this follows on the heels of Martino's story about Jayson Werth, which was originally posted on this web site as pretty badly written, then miraculously was "cleaned up" after someone commented about it. If Martino is the future of sports journalism, then we are all in trouble. Get ready for more Tweet stuff.
    — John Merriweather
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:29 PM, 10/20/2009
    Guys, use your old newspaper reading skills and check the dateline. This was posted by Martino before the game. Don't crticize him for posting about this after a great game. Criticize, if you like, as bobby did, that there was no post at all. However, all in all, since Martino arrived, Murphy has gotten pushed and writes better than he did. Martino, for whatever flaws you may think he exhibits, has accomplished the rare result of improving the writing of his age contemporary colleagues. Not something you see everyday in newspapers.
    — calm weather
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:19 PM, 10/20/2009
    I saw the dateline, calm, and that's irrelevant. Same goes for Andy's writing and whatever impact you think his mere presence is having on other writers. (And wow, is that a whole 'nother subject...) My point is simply that we are presented with this blog by the Inky as being 'all things Phillie', and Andy is supposedly the keeper of the blog. I don't expect Pulitzer Prize posts. But as a fan who enjoys reading and posting, I do expect SOMETHING. Todd Zolecki wasn't perfect by any means, but he was savvy enough to realize that a sports blog requires a minimal amount of attention, if for no other reason than to spark discussion and keep people coming back. He also knew that it was an easy way to promote various other articles written on the previous day's game by simply posting links and a few comments. Heck, Philly.com could easily enlist a knowledgeable Phils fan to run the blog (for free) and they'd have a much more engaging site.
    — bobby


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About Matt Gelb and Bob Brookover












Bob Brookover and Matt Gelb team up for their third straight season covering the Phillies for the Inquirer and philly.com.

This is Brookover’s second stint writing about the Phillies, having joined the coverage team after seven years as an Eagles beat writer. Brookover was hired by The Inquirer in 2000 as the Phillies beat writer after spending 13 years writing about the team for two suburban newspapers. While on the Eagles beat, Brookover, who had covered just two winning Phillies teams in 15 seasons, saw the Phillies move into a cash-cow new ballpark and begin playing a brand of the game he found unrecognizable. Follow him on Twitter here.

Gelb is in his third season covering the Phillies. He was hired by The Inquirer in August 2009 after graduating from Syracuse University. He has also covered baseball at The Star-Ledger and Cape Cod Times. Born and raised in Bucks County, he attended Central Bucks High School West. Follow him on Twitter here.
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