Credit: Out of the Park Baseball

I have a confession: I love my iPhone. I consider it to be the single the best purchase I've ever made (and believe me I've made plenty of them). Sure, I'm not thrilled will having to shell out nearly $70 on a monthly basis but that comes with the territory of owning a smartphone. After roughly a year with the device, I've been in the hunt for some gaming titles to go along with my favorite apps. Unfortunately, I've yet to really find a good baseball iOS game.

Earlier in the week, I was provided a free review copy of iOOTP 2011, which retails in the iTunes App Store for $4.99. The game, which is modeled after the Out of the Park Baseball PC franchise, enables you to control any one of the 30 MLB teams without actually playing the games out (think MLB Front Office Manager only with better, more detailed rosters). Instead, you get to play the role of Manager and General Manager and control the games from the comfort of the dugout. All of that sounds good, but what really matters is whether or not the game is any good?

For the most part, I have enjoyed the past couple of days playing the game. Anyone who has ever spent time with the desktop version will find that there is not much difference in the portable edition, which is a good thing. Right off of the bat, I began a franchise with the Mets and before long I found myself managing Opening Day with starter R.A. Dickey squaring off against Florida Marlins ace Josh Johnson.

I got slaughtered, with Johnson holding my team to just four hits (two of which came from Angel Pagan). Currently, my Mets' season record sits at 0-4 (hey at least it's realistic!). Nevertheless, the game has been an enjoyable experience and a nice way to kill time. There is a slight learning curve that you need to get used to with regards to knowing how long you can and cannot leave your starting pitcher in the game before his effectiveness diminishes, but I've been starting to get the hang of it and my games are becoming less and less lop-sided.

Now for the nit-picky. I really wish there were a dedicated "Save" option to save your progress midway through the game. This is a game that I would expect to play while on the train or in the middle of my lunch break. Sure, you can always sim to the end automatically but that takes the fun and excitement out of the experience. What if I'm in a pitcher's duel like the one between Chris Capuano and Tim Lincecum earlier in the week and I have to put down my iPhone in the middle of the scoreless fifth inning? Another thing I noticed is that some of the rosters are slightly not accurate. This is not all that big of a deal since you can manually edit them yourself but I do find Nick Evans being listed as a starter over Ike Davis to be rather comical. I'd like to stress though that neither of these issues are a big deal and they did not impede on me having fun with the game in any way.

Final Say:

I have been rather disappointed with the current crop of sports games on the iPhone, especially many of the EA Sports titles. While the gameplay isn't bad per say, it is hard to control a defender in Madden and try to dribble your way up court in NBA Live.

iOTTP really lived up to the hype in my opinion due to its with it's strong replay value and its attention to detail (yes Mets fans Matt Harvey is in the game from the get-go). Rather than trying to come up with a vastly new (and likely inferior) game, developers took what the key pieces that made their PC version so successful and optimized them for the iPhone's touch screen. Simulation games like iOTTP are made for the iPhone because they don't require the use of a virtual joystick and most of the game can be played using the single tap of a finger. I think it's safe to say that this is the closest thing you're going to get to having a full-blown copy of "MLB: The Show" in your pocket!