Cavaliers interested in acquiring Ben McLemore or Joe Johnson, among others
February 12, 2016O-H: Buckeyes lead the country with 14 players invited to NFL Combine
February 12, 2016Just as in any sport itself, there are some athletes who just do social media better than others. The world where one questions is Joe Flacco a elite quarterback and can be dominated by crying Jordan memes is an interesting nut for any professional athlete to crack. And, few athletes do social media better than the Cleveland Indians Jason Kipnis though occasions such as Wednesday night might make him ponder why he bothers.
The celebrity of the athlete often allows them to build a fantastic-sized follower list nearly instantaneously, but the ability to create and nurture their social media persona is completely up to themselves. Jason Kipnis has built up a following of 154,000 plus through his never-ending stream of playfulness with present and former teammates alongside some great fan interaction.1
Alas, such nurturing includes dealing with the various members of society who find themselves with lives so empty they feel their only purpose is to spew vitriol towards people they have never met. These electronic dregs are always prepared to throw out their binary barbs, and one can almost hear their cackling in the auto-update notification that completes their delivery.
So, when Kipnis posted an appreciative gesture for the highest performing team in the NBA, the anger mongers took the torch and pitchfork route rather than following the gregarious nature of a comment from a new teammate.
Watching this Warriors team live is something else! #theydontmiss
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) February 11, 2016
https://twitter.com/MikeNapoli25/status/697621833286184961
You see, the Golden State Warriors are on pace to challenge the best-ever record in the history of the NBA during the season in which they are the defending NBA champions. However, they had defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers to win that championship, and remain as the most difficult roadblock standing in the way of the Cavs winning their first-ever ring.
And, it is the apparent duty of various citizens to notify any member of any professional sporting team in Cleveland their complete allegiance must be to the other Cleveland teams with only abject hatred displayed toward rivals.
Therefore, the obvious response to the Kipnis tweet was digital shouts of “You’re supposed to hate them” or “Go play for the A`s” or, well, words strung together in ways that one would not allow their children to read aloud (or silently for that matter).2
Nevermind, Kipnis grew up outside Chicago and is a fan of the Blackhawks, Bulls, and Cubs.
Took Chiz to see his first @nhlblackhawks game tonight! Brought home a W https://t.co/dKJDmuReKN
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) January 25, 2016
I see you @ARizzo44!! #whatpitchwasthat #ahomerpitch
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) October 13, 2015
Nevermind, Kipnis has supported the Cavs all season including wearing a Cavs jersey even though they were playing the Chicago Bulls on Opening Night.
.@TheJK_Kid pic.twitter.com/c0dQIPIuhl
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) October 27, 2015
Nevermind, the leading player on the Cavs has demonstrated no reservations about wearing opponents apparel in a Cleveland sporting venue.
Nevermind, Kipnis did look to appease the masses with a subsequent tweet lauding fans in The Land, while still doing some CYA with his hometown fans:
Seeing this game makes me appreciate the UC and the Q that much more.. #chi #cle #rockin
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) February 11, 2016
Amazingly, Kipnis handles the haters with the same type of calm that allowed him to obtain a .432 OBP with a full count at the plate last season. Somehow he is able to ignore the hateful and ignorant messaging that would leave most of us tempted to respond with a sarcastic or passive aggressive response. And, when fans jump to his defense and voice their displeasure to Kipnis, he responds with grace.
You don't have to apologize for this guy.. Takes a lot more than that to get me to stop loving you Cle! #comeswiththeterritory?
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) January 3, 2016
Wednesday night got especially bad. Embarrassing to be associated as an Indians fan with some of those people bad. So bad, the Indians social media handle stepped in to attempt to calm things down.
@Davidfromthe216 @Kevin_Dasd @JaySmooth_211 @TheJK_Kid David: Please stand down. pic.twitter.com/icdHCWgNJf
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) February 11, 2016
And, with the sage wisdom, an old message hit home. It is so easy to fall into the cycle of negativity begun with those initial hateful jabs. I fall into the trap more often than I would like to admit. But, the only outcome of doing so is to fall into a recursive loop of trading insults.
So, a call for demonstrating the patience of Kipnis is in order. Treating others as we would want to be treated. Even online. Even when those others are begging to be put in their place. Especially when those others are begging to be put in their place. And, giving ourselves more time to make the digital world a positive place.
Before anyone thinks I’m lecturing others, this is a reminder and call for myself. A New Year’s resolution in February, I suppose. I’ll fail it more often than I’ll like to admit, but I’ll try my best to abide by it.
That way, I can focus my efforts more on the pro-bat-flip lobby.
If there's anytime you should be allowed to pimp a home run.. Dammit that's when you can do it! #dontbesensitive #thatwashuge
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) October 14, 2015
That way, there’s more time for randomly dancing.
When the clock hits 5 o'clock on Friday… that #FridayFeeling. pic.twitter.com/CTIhzhi83f
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) January 22, 2016
That way, there’s more time for hugging.
https://twitter.com/TheJK_Kid/status/685261725109633024
That time @TheJK_Kid and @Lindor12BC crushed the Teammate Game… #TribeFest at its best. pic.twitter.com/GFGkZgpMtO
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) January 30, 2016
That way, there’s more time for supporting worthy causes.
https://twitter.com/BBTN/status/620800848545890305
Besides, MLB Spring Training is upon us, and live baseball games are a calendar flip away. As for those mean tweets, well, the Indians know to mostly ignore them. But, even when they do acknowledge them, they somehow still manage to do so in a hilarious way that adds laughter our lives.
- Note: 23 million followers for @CNN which is a crazy high number, but they do report actual worldwide news. [↩]
- Note: Yes, these are actual things that were written back at Kipnis and they did get quite disgusting. No, I’m not posting them and giving their “handles” the publicity by doing so. It’s bad enough I’m highlighting their behavior. [↩]
4 Comments
Why???
Don’t tweet @celebs or @athletes. Unless you are this girl I guess:
http://www.refinery29.com/2016/01/101463/disney-fangirl-dating-teen-crush-after-five-years
Well, the problem isn’t just at the athlete / celeb level, but yeah.
Drives me bonkers on Indians twitter when people direct tweet nastiness at our players during games.
Imagine the flak of a pitcher responded (in-game).
“I threw the curve because I thought he was thinking fastball there buddy!”