I grew up a baseball fan. I am not a baseball fan today. It wasn’t just a case of getting bored with it. I got sick of the phony American exceptionalism mythology behind it. (Doubleday? Yeah, and I race unicorns.) The steroid era bugged me. And I was not impressed with the way Major League Baseball forced Washington into a horrible stadium deal it can’t afford. I’m still rooting for the Nationals … to leave town and give D.C. United that stadium.
It’s a sport with an unwritten “code” that’s even more juvenile than hockey’s. Here, stand in that box while I throw a ball at you. If you charge at me, everyone will clear the benches and act like tough guys. At least hockey players actually drop gloves and square off in a fair fight.
So imagine my surprise when I checked out Brandon McCarthy, the pitcher who was just released from the hospital a few days after needing a frightening line drive to the head forced him into surgery, and found that he is quite possibly the funniest athlete on Twitter.
His second Tweet after cranial surgery:
The good news in all of this, is that I set up my fantasy lineups beforehand. So there shall be no excuses at this point.
— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) September 8, 2012
A day later:
Does autocorrect have a brain injury edition? Jesus this shit’s impossible
— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) September 10, 2012
After a nice shoutout from a stadium scoreboard:
very nice but sorta bossy? RT “@susanslusser: #Angels scoreboard flashes a “Get Well Soon, Brandon McCarthy” message just before first pitch
— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) September 11, 2012
And my favorite (not at all because I follow a lot of U.S. women’s national team soccer players on social networks):
Bad news: doc says I might be one of those people who posts motivational nonsense all day on Facebook now :(
— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) September 11, 2012
You missed his last one today, which was a bit naughtly but equally funny. Or perhaps you chose not to post it to keep the blog family friendly?
The NFL is far far worse when it comes to stadium bullying. I won’t give the NFL a cent of my money
Yeah, the last one was a good one. I just wanted to end on the “motivational” one. I understand why people post motivational stuff on Twitter and Facebook, but it’s so tempting to write snarky responses!
Do you have a snarky response to a certain player who constantly tweets about and retweets from her “coach?”