UPDATE: No one has said so or anything (OK, now they have!) but just plain logic is causing most people to believe that the Joyce Twitter account is a fake. The avatar thing is just too nuts. And it’s not likely that that Major League Baseball would allow such a thing anyway.
How did I get suckered? Just lazy, I guess. Fake accounts tend to be over the top. That this one wasn’t probably threw me. I’m usually sharper and more skeptical than that, so who knows what my problem was. I suppose I was just caught up in a credulous moment this morning.
Still, there was something positive here. As I said a few minutes ago, I heard about this from secretly viewing Jon Heyman’s Twitter feed (shhh! don’t tell him!). Which means that someone is
pulling a prank on Heyman, because he believed it. I don’t approve of Twitter hoaxes, and I sure as hell don’t like being duped just like Heyman was, but I do
approve of people messing with Heyman, so consider me conflicted
here.
11:35 A.M.: Here’s something I wasn’t expecting: infamous-then-noble umpire Jim Joyce started up a Twitter account late last night. The best part: at first his avatar was a screen-cap of his call at first base in the Galarraga game, showing that Joyce has either a good sense of humor or a great perspective or both. He changed it, though, because people thought it was one of the many hoax celebrity (such as he is) Twitter accounts. This is legit though. (Update: rather, it probably isn’t)
If I had to guess it will soon go quiet, like so many Twitter accounts do. At the very least by the beginning of next year because I bet Major League Baseball doesn’t want umpires on Twitter. I kind of hope not, though. Anything that cuts through the filters and static between newsmakers and the public is a good thing.
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- gerryb323 - Oct 12, 2010 at 11:48 AM
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That was fast. Link doesn’t work already!
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- lar @ wezen-ball - Oct 12, 2010 at 11:56 AM
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The link doesn’t work, Craig. It needs to be this: http://twitter.com/Jim_JoyceMLB
I guess the “#!” is a remnant of the new twitter. Can you tell us what makes you feel it’s legit? Did you talk to someone who spoke with Joyce directly, maybe?
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- pcrm - Oct 12, 2010 at 12:08 PM
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Yeah, I’d say it’s not him. Most of the pages he’s signed up to follow are Detroit Tigers ones.
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- JCD - Oct 12, 2010 at 12:10 PM
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Seriously, THAT’S his avatar?? And you’re okay with that?? Wonder if the pitcher who got absolutely robbed finds it that amusing.
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- Mr. Heyward - Oct 12, 2010 at 1:01 PM
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Craig, in the appreciation of transparency, I must confess that I am not actually Jason Heyward. My apologies for any confusion that may have transpired due to this misrepresentation.
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- birdmancometh - Oct 12, 2010 at 1:39 PM
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WTF!?
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- birdmancometh - Oct 12, 2010 at 1:41 PM
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Next your going to tell me that Chris Fiorentino’s family doesn’t own a box-wine company.
