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TWITTER OUTRAGE (SORT OF)

By: Jack Greiner on August 19, 2019 on graydon.law

I was watching a Reds game last week and broadcasters Thom Brenneman and Chris Welsh started talking about the best baseball players from Cincinnati. As it turns out, several years ago, I had submitted a letter to the editor at Sports Illustrated wherein I submitted my all-time Cincinnati lineup. And it’s impressive:

Catcher — Jim Leyritz 1b — Pete Rose 2b — Bill Doran SS — Barry Larkin 3b — Buddy Bell LF — Jim Wynn CF — Ken Griffey, Jr. RF — Dave Parker

That’s 2 Hall of Famers (Larkin and Griffey), 1 who would be there but for gambling (Rose) and one border line hall of fame caliber player (Parker).

Anyway, as I was watching the game, I tweeted that lineup. Somebody who follows me didn’t like it so much. His replies included:

“Bell over Sabo??”

“Leyritz over Bench???”

Another follower of mine then pointed out that the team wasn’t all-time Reds, but rather all- time Cincinnati natives. Follower #1 took the correction very graciously and posted this response:

And for the record, I might take Buddy Bell over Chris Sabo. Bell’s career WAR is 66.3 compared to Sabo’s 16.6. Leyritz of course should not be mentioned in the same breath as Johnny Bench. As Sparky Anderson so eloquently put it once “Don’t embarrass nobody by comparing them to Johnny Bench.”

But I digress. The exchange was a good illustration of what probably happens too often on social media – we see something and react, sometimes too quickly and often without completely understanding the original point. I’ve done it more than I like to admit.

In this case, it was pretty trivial, but it’s a good reminder to take a breath before hitting “send.”