Throughout the history of Major League Baseball, there have been players who have stepped onto the field and changed the game forever. One player in particular has changed the sport in an unprecedented way. However, this player's impact on America's favorite pastime has nothing to do with batting, pitching, or fielding. In fact, this "player", has never actually set foot on a baseball field. No, this player sits on the mobile devices and/or desktops of baseball fans all over the world. Who is this "player"?
Social Media.
Social Media has had and continues to have one of the biggest impacts on the sport of baseball. One of it's biggest impacts is on the interaction between players and fans. Twenty years ago, baseball players were larger than life. What fans knew about them was found through stats & trivia via trading cards, magazines, books, ect. as well as interviews on television. There was a sense of mystery to a lot of the players of pre-social media era baseball which helped create these large than life heroes. Think of players like Chipper Jones, Mark McGuire, Frank Thomas, Jason Giambi - the majority of what you saw/heard from them happened during games and interviews. And for the most part, all of it was related to what they did on the field - not off.
Jump back to the present, times have changed drastically. The Internet grew in popularity and through the growth of the Internet, social media was born. Now it's an entirely different ball game (pun intended). In today's society, if you want to know more about player besides his batting average or how many home runs he had in post-season, you're a mere seconds away from your desired knowledge. And with the birth of Twitter, you can follow your favorite players. Fans nowadays can learn what Eric Sogard had for breakfast or find out what R.A. Dickey is doing this afternoon. Twitter also allows fans to "tweet" their favorite players and most of the time they'll get reply or a "retweet".
Thanks to social media, the divider between players and fans has been shattered. Anything that's going on in the MLB world, on and off the field, can be found within seconds. Whether it's trade rumors, PED suspicions, a player's wife posting pictures of their pets - it's all available for fans. And with it's profound impact on baseball, it begs the question - has this damaged baseball or improved it? Let's look at the pros and cons.
PROS
Following athletes on Twitter and seeing what they do off the field may take away that "larger than life" air about them, but is that such a bad thing? Nowadays you hear stories of fans meeting their favorite players and hearing them say things like "Hey, I recognize you from Twitter!". As a fan, that's a great thing to hear from your favorite player (of course if it's for a good reason they recognize you). Fans can offer congratulations to their favorite team(s) and player(s) after a win, or some encouragement after a loss.
Twitter also allows fans to meet and interact with fellow baseball fans that they may not ever have gotten a chance to meet. For me personally, I've met a lot of awesome people through Twitter that I'll hopefully meet at a game or two. Whether they're Giants fans or not, we're all fans of baseball. We can share our thoughts and feelings about the sport respectfully.
Twitter has become the new ESPN (if not, better than ESPN). You can follow your favorite news sources for all the latest info. Missing the game? You can find "live tweets" or simply use hashtags and see hundreds of tweets from people all over the world. However, read with caution because some tweets will cause you to shake your head and/or lose a little hope for the human race.
Also on Twitter, you can discover awesome baseball blogs. Two favorites of mine are Curveballs & Cocktails (@WHIPsNWine) and Hats and Tats (@shakabrodie). If it wasn't for Twitter, I probably would've never known they existed. Twitter allows you to find great blogs like these and connect with the people that run them.
CONS
As with anything in life, there's the good and then there's the bad. Fans are able to follow athletes on Twitter, but Twitter is also the cyber playing field for obsessive "fans" (or cleat chasers). Some of the tweets that show up in news feeds can make Jose Canseco seem like a mentally stable human being.
Twitter allows for fans to be apart, in a way, of the personal lives of players. Which of course can lead to foul behavior (another pun intended) from fans. Often times, fans will take to Twitter and hurl harsh insults about a player to the wives of the players and/or they'll throw insults at the wives themselves. Nowadays, the girlfriends and wives of baseball players are almost as famous as the players themselves thanks to the world of hashtags and retweets.
In closing, are you a fan of Social Media's impact on baseball?
Thanks For Reading,
Jordan Hart (@MrJordanHart)
No comments:
Post a Comment