Fire Eric Bruntlett

WIN of the Month – 7/23: Athletes on Facebook WIN

We don’t have a whole lot of consistency over here at Fire Eric Bruntlett. It’s partly because of each of us being incredibly busy in other parts of our lives, but also in part due to us being really bad at this. In any case, this is one of several steps we will attempt to take to gain relative consistency. Once a week, we will try to post a random picture of screengrab we find around the interwebs (but likely fail) which is ironic, considering what the nature of feature is. Most of the time, it will be a fail we thought was funny. “Fail,” or “epic fail,” of course, referring to the Internet meme of something bad happening with hilarious circumstances. However, once a month, we will post a great win, like that used in this post.

I really love finding athletes on Twitter, for a few reasons: they’re more candid than usual, they’re generally impossible to understand, and sometimes you need a translator just to do so. However, as great as athletes Tweeting is, athletes on Facebook are even better. First of all, they’re are more words coaches can use when trying to talk about Facebook, as University of Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino did yesterday morning. You can also find more random info right on the surface – favorite movies, random people they’re friends with whom you also happen to know, etc. That is, of course, if it’s actually the real player, which is where a lot of the fun comes in. That’s also where the very first WIN of the week comes in. I was checking out some random Philly athletes on Twitter as I often do specifically for times like these, but other than that, for no real reason whatsoever. Eventually, I landed on a few minor league Phillies, and shortly thereafter, the page of Tagg Bozied, the power-hitting first baseman for AA affiliate Reading Phillies. He recently became friends with pitcher Vance Worley, who himself recently got called up to the show, directly from AA. Reading centerfielder, Tyson Gillies, who came over as part of the Cliff Lee trade, decided to add his insight.

Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that baseball players are still people, as opposed to the robots that have been trained to “Catch ball, throw ball, hit ball,” as they might seem to be. It certainly doesn’t help that umpires have aided in turning players to emotionless machines that play the exact same way every time and aren’t allowed to defend themselves when a play was called incorrectly. It’s also awfully disadvantageous when beat writers publicly lambaste players for showing emotions. Hmm… I sure wish someone would publicly lambaste beat writers for showing their emotions and having personal vendettas against players. As a matter of fact, Bill Baer of Crashburn Alley did a terrific job of that on Tuesday.

Of course, athletes on Facebook is a very small way for them to display what little humanity they have left, compared to arguing a call or becoming angry in the midst of a slump. For now, consider that paragraph a bit of foreshadowing to stuff I (hope to) have planned for the coming days. (I know better than to guarantee things.) And laugh at one minor-league Phillie calling two teammates gay.

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