Cliff Lee's Reaction to the Phillies Team Meeting Was Very Cliff Lee-esque (Awesome)

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The Phillies won another series over the weekend. This time they did so against the division-leading Atlanta Braves to cut one game off their lead which now stands at 7.5 games on July 8th. Every little bit of ground is needed at this point.

But a series victory was not the only news to come out of Citizens Bank Park over the weekend as Charlie Manuel has lost his first baseman to the 15-day DL with knee issues. Howard will have an MRI on the knee today to get a better understanding of how serious the issue is and determine whether or not some extended rest will be enough or if surgery may be an option.

And then there was the whole team meeting thing called by Ruben Amaro Jr. and Charlie Manuel. Apparently, someone in the front office was not happy with the team having some fun with Jonathan Pettibone getting sunflower seeds thrown at him and a bubblegum and cup-emblazoned batting helmet placed on him while he did an in-game interview on Saturday night. It was a perfect instance of baseball players having fun and as MLB.com's Todd Zolecki put it, "some believe appearance matters."

Cliff Lee reacted to the talking to in a very Cliff Lee-like fashion. From Zolecki's article:

"I'm not doing the in-game interview today," Cliff Lee barked at a Phillies media relations staff member beforehand in front of a MLB.com reporter. "If they're going to get mad about that, we're not doing them anymore."

You've got to love Cliff. All business on the mound, all barking at media relations staff off of it.

For RAJ or someone in management to get perturbed about some in-game interview hijinx comes off as pretty humorous to me, even in a defeat as ugly as Saturday night.

It's tough to really make to much out of these things when nobody wants to talk about it after the fact, but Cliff Lee's response at least provides some giggles.

[Pettibone screen cap via Alex Reardon]

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