Ordinarily, I wouldn’t endorse the harassment of retired sportsmen via social networking platforms, but when the athlete in question is the newly Tweeting Roger Clemens, I’m willing to make a big exception.
Unsatisfied with The Rocket dropping such science as “”Thx to all the guys in NICKELBACK,” NY Baseball Digest’s Mike Silva couldn’t resist an opportunity to engage in one-to-one conversation with a sure-thing Hall Of Famer (if there’s such an institution for pathological liars).
Since Clemens, and these are his words (via a spokesman), œis as direct and honest in his communications on Twitter as he is face to face I decided to give him my form of direct and honest communication. After all, I pride myself on being equally direct and honest on twitter as I am in person. With that, I asked Clemens the following question:
@rogerclemens So Rocket when are you going to admit you threw at Piazza? Dont you think what happens to you is poetic justice for that act?
I didn™t expect a response since Clemens either lies or avoids the topic since it happened in 2000, but I was wrong. Here was his response:
rogerclemens @NYBD once again WEE-WAH
So there you have it folks, the intelligent discourse by the œdirect and honest former Cy Young Award WInner. How great would it be to see Piazza getting his plaque in 2013 and Clemens sitting home? Maybe we could give us some direct and honest œtweeting of Mike™s acceptance speech. Hopefully he won™t throw his laptop at the TV because he thought it was a baseball.
If the reportage of Murray Chass and Jeff Pearlman have much traction, I’m not super confident that Piazza’s being honored in 2013. Unless, of course, Silva meant the Guitar Center Hollwood Rockwalk, and their induction proceedings generally aren’t televised.
I’m as big a Rocket hater as anyone, but Silva comes off like a total douche. What kind of response should be expected from a trollish tweet like that?
i dunno, surely Clemens could’ve managed something as polite as this reply to another detractor : “sorry you feel that way. Need to read and get your facts straight partner! Hope no one ever says false things about u.”
I’m cutting and pasting that one for any further hate mail from oregon.
“Obnoxious questions merit obnoxious answers.”
Clemens has no obligation to oblige (sorry for the alliteration) a silly question like this. He would have been better off not responding but whatever, his response is fine in my book. And my favorite player ever is Mike Piazza.
Silva’s question pre-supposes that Clemens did in fact hit Piazza on purpose:
“So Rocket when are you going to admit you threw at Piazza?”
If Clemens answers “today”, then he is admitting he did it on purpose. If he answers “never”, he is also admitting he did it on purpose but is simply never going to admit it. If Silva was actually looking to engage Clemens in some kind of Twitter discourse, he may have asked something like this instead:
“Now that you’ve decided to open a Twitter account and opening yourself up to questions, how about discussing the Piazza incidents? Did you throw at Piazza?”
Trolling at its finest by Mike Silva.
indeed, it’s about as constructive as asking Brett Myers when he’s gonna stop beating his wife (or asking Piazza when he’ll start beating Sam Champion). But yeah, there was nothing Clemens could say in reply that would put him in a positive light. I just like the mental picture of the Rocket in a golf cart somewhere, typing “W-E-E-W-A-H” into his crackberry while cronies patiently wait for him to finish.
An acquaintance of mine supposedly once heckled Neubauten/Bad Seeds icon Blixa Bargeld with “hey Blixa, why don’t you try not sucking for a moment?”, which I’ve often thought to be the ultimate in pointless provocation.
Or like asking Mike Piazza why his bacne has cleared up so dramatically since he ended his playing career.
“Indeed, it’s about as constructive as asking Brett Myers when he’s gonna stop beating his wife (or asking Piazza when he’ll start beating Sam Champion). But yeah, there was nothing Clemens could say in reply that would put him in a positive light.”
You put it perfectly. Just confused why it was postworthy and harassment of anyone was endorsed (even if the guy did PEDs, it’s not like he killed someone). Trolling 101 by Silva.
I found it postworthy for a few reasons;
a) Silva’s post was the first place I learned of Clemens’ twittering
b) as unfair and loaded as the “question” truly was, I did laugh at the throwing-the-laptop line.
c) I see only positives coming from a thorough discussion of whether or not Silva or anyone else ought to be hassling celebrities in this fashion. And by “positives”, I mean traffic, money, etc.
If even half the stories in Pearlman’s ‘The Rocket Who Fell To Earth’ are true, PED use is the least of the reasons why Clemens is deserving of scorn. Do his long list of character flaws, ethical lapses and selfish behavior justify Silva’s immature actions? That’s for everyone to decide for themselves. If the Clemens’ twitter feed was a private dialogue between him and his pals, Silva’s riposte would strike me as inappropriate. Given that the public feed is clearly part of the Rocket’s p.r. offensive, I’m slightly less troubled by Silva reminding Raja that being accessible to the great unwashed means you have to contend with people who hate you, too.
“Or like asking Mike Piazza why his bacne has cleared up so dramatically since he ended his playing career.”
Unless “Oletangy” is a pseudonym for Eddie Trunk, none of us really know if that’s true.
Alright, fair enough I guess. Just realize Silva has spent the better part of the baseball season exhibiting trollish behavior just like this.