May 22, 2013

Chris Perez: “I want to minimize any potential off-the-field distraction”

May 21, 2013 by 20 Comments

Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez released an official statement following the much-discussed deactivation of his Twitter account.

“The decision to deactivate my Twitter account was a personal choice I made in order to maintain the greater focus on the success of the team this season and our shared goals moving forward.

We have an extremely positive and supportive group of players, coaches and staff members in our clubhouse and I want to participate in activities and routines that contribute positively to the culture we’re building here.

Out of respect for my teammates, I want to minimize any potential off-the-field distractions so this is the only time I will comment on this topic. Thank you for your understanding.”

Perez deleted his account following Cleveland’s 10-8 win over the Seattle Mariners on Monday afternoon. The two-time All-Star allowed his third home run in two consecutive outings which led to a slew of personal attacks via the microblogging platform.

[Related: Indians 10 Mariners 8: Yan Freaking Gomes and the Mariners Defense – a Lethal Combination]

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MLB News: Indians closer Chris Perez deletes his Twitter account

May 20, 2013 by 110 Comments

Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez has had enough. Following Monday afternoon’s extra-innings win against the Seattle Mariners, thus completing a four-game sweep at Progressive Field, Perez deleted his Twitter account largely in part to the barrage of hate-laced tweets being sent his way.

Chris Perez Twitter Feed

Perez, a two-time All-Star with the Indians, has become a bit of a target on the microblogging platform following his comments last season regarding fan support. On Tuesday afternoon, Perez gave up his third home run in what was his last two outings, forcing the Indians to come from behind via the heroics of reserve catcher Yan Gomes.

When Perez allowed two home runs this past weekend, he tweeted out that one of the most useful tools on Twitter was the “block” feature that allows him to not receive messages from select fans. On Tuesday, the closer seemingly had enough of the tasteless barbs being thrown his way, oftentimes anonymously.

Despite saving 90 percent of his chances (81-for-91) since becoming the Tribe’s closer in 2011, a cabal of Indians “fans” have decided to carry along a narrative that Perez “always” blows saves and—despite being just a few saves shy of long-time Indians reliever Doug Jones—has provided no benefit as the anchor of one of the best bullpens in the major leagues. More importantly, he’s a human being.

Perez often used Twitter to interact with fans, hand out free tickets to games, and reveal his “song of the day” each and every morning. It appears that the costs associated with his profile, at this stage, far outweighed the benefits. Tough to imagine why…

[Related: Indians exemplifying “next man up” thus far]

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Hooray! NFL Network and ESPN agree not to tip draft picks via Twitter

April 22, 2013 by 24 Comments

2013 NFL Draft LogoI was extremely happy to learn that NFL Network and ESPN have decided that they won’t be tipping draft picks via Twitter this week during the NFL draft. Adam Schefter will still be working to break extraordinary news like trades or bold moves, but if there’s just a team sitting in a slot and selecting a guy, Schefter will not be reporting it a minute ahead of time, for example. They’ve also agreed to avoid showing potential draftees on the phone in New York City in order to try and get the pick to the TV audience before it escapes the lips of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. I don’t know if this will work completely to keep from spoiling picks as ESPN and NFL Network can’t control other guys like Jay Glazer who are as plugged in as anyone in the NFL world, but it’s a good idea, I think.

So am I really just advocating for the death of reporting? I don’t think so. I’ve taken the same stance with the NBA draft too, by the way. I just think that while uncovering potential trades and free agency moves is a valuable bit of reporting there’s something really worthless about scooping a live event a mere minute or less before the thing actually happens. If information is measured in value where the amount of time of relevance is determinant of actual value of the piece of info, then info with mere seconds or minutes of “useful” life is decidedly of low value.

All this comes in the same time period where I discussed the value of information on Twitter against the backdrops of the cable news networks with regard to the Boston bombing and subsequent man-hunt. In that case, I prefer the truth and immediacy of Twitter as the events are unfolding. Even taking into account the sheer difference in gravity of the NFL draft and the hunting of a terror suspect, it would seem that what I’m displaying is a hypocritical stance. I guess I’m alright with that in this case. Yes, it takes some work to report on a draft pick before it actually happens, but clearly the entertainment angle is of importance on draft night and shouldn’t be ignored. [Read more...]

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Houston’s Daryl Morey digs up Cleveland roots in Twitter Q&A

March 26, 2013 by 1 Comment

Houston Rockets number-devouring wunderkind Daryl Morey, doing what social media-friendly executives do, entertained some friendly question-and-answer on Tuesday afternoon. Those who are not well aware of Morey’s roots, graduating from Medina’s Highland High School in 1990, may have been surprised by his responses to a few childhood inquiries.

Morey went from Highland High to Northwestern to MIT to STATS Inc. to general manager of the Houston Rockets in the matter of 16 years. While his career path may not relate to many of us, his childhood heroes sure do.

[Related: The Cleveland Browns and year-over-year quarterback envy]

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Miles: Twitter is “the devil,” waste of time

February 21, 2013 by 20 Comments

Twitter is the devil. Social media is used the wrong way a lot more than it’s uesd the right way. That’s the way I feel. I feel it’s a bunch of nonsense most of the time. I just laugh at a lot of stuff as I see it — I’m not really on Twitter as much as I used to be. I even deleted it once and came back. I saw it as, ‘I’m wasting time” basically. You could be doing a lot better things — I can be reading a book, shooting more jump shots — a lot of things better than looking at what people are saying that probably isn’t true in the first place.

– Cleveland Cavaliers swingman CJ Miles on social media’s impact on players, specifically around the NBA trade deadline when rumors are abound. The Cavaliers have greatly increased their use of social media with regard to fan interaction. As we have seen all too often, unfortunately, fan interaction with players can occasionally veer toward the negative and dumb.

[Related: To: NBA, From: Kyrie Irving, Subject: Just getting started]

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WFNY Podcast – 2013-01-21 – Craig and Denny talk Lance Armstrong, Te’o, the Internets and leaving them

January 21, 2013 by 2 Comments

WFNY Podcast LogoI find myself looking for reasons to have certain people on the podcast and Denny is one of those people. This time we middled around the Lance Armstrong topic for a bit before getting into some more overarching themes about the Internet, culture, media, etc. A great conversation as always even if it ended up someplace completely different than Lance Armstrong.

  • Denny’s NYC Marathon as a part of team Livestrong
  • Doping and cheating… What is cheating?
  • Is Craig a cheater using something like Jack3d from GNC?
  • How culture deals with storylines and the hunger for better ones
  • Manti Te’o and parallels between his deception and Lance Armstrong
  • Destinations vs. the trips it took to arrive at them
  • Time spent online vs. time spent off the grid
  • Appreciating time while you have it and not bemoaning its loss when it’s gone

Listen at Stitcher

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Browns’ Josh Cribbs attempts to make up for Twitter tirade

December 24, 2012 by 3 Comments

Following a profanity-laced tirade aimed at the vocal minority of more-than-likely anonymous “fans” who think it’s acceptable to call professional athletes derogatory names behind the comfort of a keyboard, long-time Cleveland Browns return man and wide receiver Josh Cribbs is trying to make amends, at least to the decent human beings.

Following the team’s recent loss in Denver, once which the NFL record holder muffed a punt in the second half, Cribbs took to Twitter to fight back, in the heat of the momet, against the lowest common denominator that the Internet has to offer. The tweet was later deleted with the messages above left to clear the air.

The Browns head to Pittsburgh this Sunday to face the Steelers in a Week 17 match-up. As it stands, this contest will the final game with Cribbs playing in a Browns uniform.

[Related: Is this the last home game for Josh Cribbs in Cleveland?]

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Swisher says hello, #RollTribe

December 23, 2012 by 1 Comment

Nick Swisher signing isn’t the biggest free agency news in MLB this off-season, but it’s very big for a Cleveland Indians team that needed an outfielder and some serious clubhouse leadership. Well, the fact that Swisher has roots in Ohio isn’t too bad either.

At least he didn’t tweet #WhatIf right?

[Related: Law: Swisher a great value, could be tradable asset in 2013]

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Dan Gilbert talks rebuilding on Twitter

December 8, 2012 by 18 Comments

Cavs owner, Dan Gilbert, took to twitter this morning to comment on rebuilding, bitterness, and “the plan”.

 

[Related: Varejao trade destinations...or lack there of]

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WFNY Podcast – 2012-10-30 – Martin Rickman from SBNation and Scott previews Cavs

October 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Last night I got a chance to talk to Cleveland resident, SBNation writer and twitter staple Martin Rickman. (@martinrickman) It was a fascinating conversation about being a blogger or post-blogger, parody Twitter accounts and being a “real person” online. Don’t tune out too quickly because I also tacked on a Cavaliers preview with Scott. Some of the audio quality is a bit hit or miss, but we were trying to get everyone’s phones to sound good through Sandy’s wrath. So, it’s only a temporary degradation in audio quality.

Also we have some good news. We’ve been added to Stitcher Radio. Selfishly it’d be great for us if you would listen to it via Stitcher because they give us stats that iTunes doesn’t. But we’re obviously still supporting both methods and are just happy that you might want to listen at all.

 

Thanks for listening! Tell a friend!

Listen at Stitcher

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Indians’ President Mark Shapiro Returns to Twitter

September 18, 2012 by 3 Comments

Having taken some time off from the microblogging platform Twitter, citing personal attacks to him and his family, Cleveland Indians team president Mark Shapiro has returned to reconnect with fans.

Shapiro then stated that he will use 3-4p EST today to answer fan questions, adding that this will be a regular feature going forward as the team works towards rebounding for the 2013 season.

[Related: Tribe Takes A Key One From Detroit – Yours Truly Rejoices]

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Greg Little is the Latest Cleveland Athlete to Get Into a Fan Feud on Twitter

September 16, 2012 by 26 Comments

In a story that is becoming all too familiar, Browns WR Greg Little fired back at fans tonight who tweeted their angst at his performance on Sunday-

Following  the game, Little tweeted his touchdown celebration pose, and compared himself to Olympic champion Usain Bolt. Fans got on Little for what they perceived as showboating despite the team losing and Little’s struggles holding on to the football.

The lesson as always- think before you tweet.

[Related: Shapiro sites personal attacks on family for twitter absence]

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Ohio State Attempts to Ban Twitter at Press Conferences

August 29, 2012 by 3 Comments

In a move that was very short-lived, the Ohio State Buckeyes football staff attempted banning the use of Twitter during team press conferences.

Reportedly aimed to aid reporters in listening to the answers being provided rather than relyaing mid-reply, it is also one that is drawing the ire of reporters who will now be a step behind those listening to the press conferences live at home who have the ability to share news, limiting the on-location benefits of those credentialed. The Orlando Sentinel has since reported that the rule has been lifted.

Per Jason Lloyd from the Akron Beacon-Journal, the ban of live dissemination is common practice for teams during closed practices; not being a public venue, teams are well within their rights to make such a request. In the public setting, however, the tides change.

“Like it or not,” writes Lloyd, ”social media and the Internet have created 24-hour news cycles.

“Twitter isn’t going away. It surpassed 500 million registered users this year and the numbers continue to increase. Schools can either embrace it or shun it. Southern California made its decision to embrace it by including players’ Twitter handles on their depth chart. Ohio State has gone the other direction.”

Major League Baseball recently added a “no cell phone” policy to their media rulebook, prohibiting media members from tweeting during press conferences and player/manager addresses in the dugout or clubhouse. Since the news of this rule became public, drawing additional scrutiny from individuals who would have otherwise been indifferent to the Ohio State program, it appeared that said decision would be short-lived. The Buckeyes claim that they were unaware of the public airing of the press conferences and no longer will prohibit reporters from live tweeting.

[Related: While We’re Waiting… Go Two More!]

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NFL Rumor: Joe Haden took Adderall as a Las Vegas ‘pick-me-up’

August 12, 2012 by 9 Comments

From mysterious Twitter rumors to possible NFL review and “no comment,” we’re continuing to see more buzz on the Internet about the alleged Joe Haden drug suspension story.

This time, the word from a Pro Football Talk league source yesterday is that the reason for Haden’s failed test is “pick-me-up” Adderall use during an offseason trip to Las Vegas. According to the report, Haden does not likely have a prescription for Adderall, a common ADD medication.

The report from PFT continued to say it likely was a one-time use and that if Haden had a prescription, he possibly could more easily avoid league suspension. However, since Adderall is not a performance-enhancer, writer Mike Florio proposed why it is possibly against league policy in the offseason.

Of course, the NFL requires random year-round drug testing for all players. This latest article theorizes that word is flowing out very early in Haden’s review process, so a final decision still might not arrive for quite a while.

[Related: Haden Won’t Comment on Alleged Drug Suspension- “It’s a League Matter”]

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No need to fear the NFL’s “All-22″ video revolution

June 20, 2012 by 9 Comments

As we talked about last week, the NFL has decided to release the “All-22″ video of NFL games using their Game Rewind subscription service. Fans will be able to pay $70 per year to see the top of the stadium angle of NFL games in order to see how plays are actually developing as opposed to the way TV creates drama by focusing on the QB and the line of scrimmage. For me, there’s just no downside to this announcement. But some are really scared about what it could do to the culture of the game, specifically among know-it-all fans and media types. I really don’t think there’s anything to be afraid of.

Twitter has taught us how ugly it can be for players already. Just ask Eric Wright after his infamous game against the Baltimore Ravens when Anquan Boldin caught eight balls for 142 yards and three touchdowns. After that game, Wright was subject to some of the harshest, nastiest criticism I’ve ever seen. No matter that he probably could have tossed some teammates under the bus for not helping over the top like they might have been assigned to do. 1 It proved to be an eye-opening moment for me about some of the negatives of player accessibility to fans.Won’t that just get worse if fans have access to this new angle to create Zapruder-like vendetta diaries against players they’d like the team to release? 2 [Read more...]

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  1. T.J. Ward was a rookie safety at the time. Browns fans can be inconsistent and play favorites in case you didn’t know. [back]
  2. Or worse. Some fans seem to wish the NFL could be more like international soccer where a player can lose his life for an own goal, like what happened to “The Gentleman of Football” Andres Escobar after an own goal against the United States in the 1994 World Cup. [back]

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Kenny Lofton on Chris Perez- “He doesn’t know anything about Cleveland”

May 21, 2012 by 34 Comments

Everyone has a take on the comments made by Indians closer Chris Perez over the weekend. Everyone including former Indian Kenny Lofton, who expressed his opinion via twitter.

When responding to questions by fans what he thought of Perez’s comments, Lofton had this to say-

“crazy …he doesn’t know anything about Cleveland”

“Just win and stop disappointing the fans”

Lofton certainly benefited from outstanding fan support during his stints with the Tribe. Looks like he is trying to return a little of the love.

UPDATE: Lofton went on the Baskin and Phelps show on 92.3 The Fan this afternoon and expanded on his thoughts. Worth a listen.

[Related: Chris Perez's comments, the good, the bad...]

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A Disturbing Situation

May 5, 2012 by 3 Comments

As Ben linked to in this morning’s While We’re Waiting, a recent revelation has caused a disturbance at Ohio State, which was a contributing factor in a recruit decommitting from the 2013 Buckeye class. First off, this young man- currently a Junior in High School- has every right to pick Ohio State or any other school. This is not about him. Nor is it about his family that made some comments that has some members of the “Ohio State community” upset and defensive on twitter and I’m guessing message boards.

In the last week, it came to the attention of the OSU compliance department that an individual has been posting pictures of himself with several Ohio State athletes on his twitter account. He has been very active in trying to communicate with OSU athletes and prospective student athletes through twitter. That doesn’t sound like anything new to those that have much experience with the social media site, where fans routinely try to get a favorite athlete or celebrity to respond to a message they tweet.

The difference in this case, is that the man in question is a registered sex offender in another state.

A warning email was sent to Ohio State’s athletes from the athletic office, and the individual’s twitter account has been shut down. [Read more...]

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MLB Report: Indians’ closer Chris Perez fined for tweet

April 18, 2012 by 8 Comments

According to this report by Paul Hoynes, Cleveland closer Chris Perez has been fined by MLB for a tweet sent after Saturday’s melees with the Royals-

“MLB fines Tribe closer Chris Perez for Tweet about Royals following Sat’s melee at Kauffman Stadium. Said he “crossed the line.” #Indians.”

Here is the tweet in question-

The amount of the fine was not disclosed.

UPDATE: Jordan Bastian reports the fine was $750.

[Related: Tribe Weekend Wrapup: The Offense is Alive]

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Criticism vs. Trolling – Lambasting Chris Perez on Twitter is Stupid

April 6, 2012 by 89 Comments

Do you think Chris Perez knows that he had a bad day yesterday? It is a dumb question for most of us, but not all of us. Every year some “fans” just refuse to get it. I really hate to do the “real fans” thing where we pretend like if you don’t bong twelve beers in the Muni lot pre-game you aren’t as good a fan as the guy who watches on his couch in Youngstown. That’s now what I’m talking about. I think it is safe to say that if you berate a player on twitter after a bad game that you are worthy of being called out. I know I wrote about this last year, but as social media gets bigger and bigger, I’ll continue to write it annually.

“Thanks %$&*head @ChrisPerez54″

“Answer me %$#* @ChrisPerez54″ [Read more...]

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NFL Draft: Trent Richardson Already Embracing Cleveland Fans

April 5, 2012 by 74 Comments

Alabama running back, and potential fourth-overall draft selection, Trent Richardson took to Twitter following his visit with the Cleveland Browns on Wednesday, and couldn’t have played his cards any better.

Taking a page out of Joe Haden’s book, Richardson is already embracing fans to which he has no immediate allegiance. An SEC guy, the ‘Bama running back already appears to know the history behind the Dawg Pound. Bonus points for spelling it correctly.

Richardson would not only be a welcomed addition to the Cleveland roster, but is already saying all of the right things to those most impacted by the last 10-plus years of futility.

[Related: NFL Draft: Stocks up and down for the Browns at #4]

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