This morning I woke up at my customary 4:30am (I generally try to get to the gym by 5:15, and this gives me a chance to go to the bathroom and have a cup of coffee before I leave). Today was the last day of school for teachers, so I did have to be at school to turn everything in and whatnot.
When I checked my email at 4:39am I saw that the Astros County Twitter account had been suspended for 12 hours because a rando Cubs Fan basically laid the blame for the girl getting smoked with the Almora foul ball at the feet of her and her parents. I told him that I hoped he got syphilis. Alcohol was involved. Someone or some people must have reported what I said as abuse or a direct threat because OBVIOUSLY I HAVE THE ABILITY TO RUB SYPHILIS BLANKETS ON PEOPLE LIKE I'M GOT DANG ANDREW JACKSON OR SOMETHING. I do not have syphilis, or any other sexually-transmitted disease, for the record. One Woman Man right here.
I removed the Comments Section from this cursed web site the following morning.
Anyhow, I was suspended for 12 hours from Twitter for a tweet to which I cannot link, because I had to remove it in order to regain access to my account. Here's what I learned:
1. I am addicted to Twitter. I'm addicted to the "What's Happening Now" aspect, the Outrage, the barrage of stimuli.
2. For a while I could see my TL, but I could not tweet, retweet, or like anything. I could DM people. Then pretty soon I wasn't allowed to see the TL.
3. It was wonderful. Once I was freed from the shackles of Twitter and the fear of missing some breaking news or whatnot, I legitimately had a better day. I would encourage everyone to log off. Go on a Twitter Fast every now and then.
4. That said, the guy upon whom I wished a sexually transmitted disease did immediately issue an apology. As far as apologies for misguided tweets go, it's a good one. I believe that it is actually heartfelt. I have a lot more followers than he does, and please do not interpret that as bragging. I don't know why anyone follows me. I have no inside knowledge of the organization (Kevin Goldstein simply will not tell me anything, other than "Shut up" or "No.") I just make jokes and find some stats because I happen to have a login to Baseball-Reference's Play Index. Still, if I tweet something negative at someone, it can lead to piling on from others. I am aware that what I tweet can have negative consequences, for myself and others.
5. I'm still not THATSORRY for sniping at a guy who said that it's your fault if you get hit with a foul ball. He reacted out of emotion, same as I did. Credit to him for leaving the tweet up, though, and not deleting it or going private.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
