Thursday, March 12, 2015

A list of the people and things that made the cut for @Yankees instead of A-Rod


In case you didn't know it, Alex Rodriguez has had a pretty impressive spring training so far. His slash line is .455/.538/.818, which is tops among big-league Yankee starters. And he had his first home run of spring training Wednesday -- a moment that got a huge ovation from the crowd.

But you wouldn't know any of this from the Yankees' Twitter account. In an embarrassing episode, the account completely ignored the home run, and never even mentioned it in a Twitter game recap. Yet they did have room to mention Jacoby Ellsbury's and Carlos Beltran's RBIs and even Slade Heathcott's homer in the game.

This omission got a lot of attention on social media -- so much so that the Yanks had to address it. So an unnamed team spokesman told the New York Daily News, the house organ of the team when it comes to Rodriguez: "It was very much an unintended error," and that “Alex is and will be treated like every other Yankees player.” 

Really? Let's take a look at the Yanks' Twitter feed and see when they last mentioned A-Rod. It was this one, talking about the team's meeting with A-Rod before spring training:
Prior to that, here is the last tweet @Yankees made about @Arod, 18 months ago:
Obviously, there were no A-Rod game-related results to mention for 2014, but why not mention his return in 2015?

Somehow, this "unintended error" kept Rodriguez off the Twitter feed, other than his last name in lineup listings, for this entire spring training. Not for his first game, not his first hit, nothing.

To put this in perspective, here are some of the non-A-Rod people and events mentioned in Yankee tweets this spring training (you can see the full list by clicking here:)

People:

Aaron Judge
Nathan Eovaldi
Jared Burton
Greg Bird
Cole Figueroa
Luis Severino
Jose Pirela
Rob Refsnyder
Nick Noonan
Bryan Mitchell
Didi Gregorius
Ramon Flores
Garrett Jones
Tyler Austin
Cito Culver
Luis Torrens
Chris Capuano
Andrew Miller
Jacob Lindgren
Dellin Betances
Masahiro Tanaka
Ron Guidry
Adam Warren
Chase Whitley
CC Sabathia
Mark Teixeira
Hideki Matsui
Reggie Jackson
Chase Headley
Michael Pineda
Brett Gardner
Ivan Nova
Brendan Ryan
Brian McCann
Joe Girardi
Chris Young
Stephen Drew
Justin Wilson
Scott Brosius
Mariano Rivera

Things and Events:

Honoring Little League Challenger players
Jeter Final Season clothing sale
Mormon Tabernacle Choir ticket information
Discount ads for Lyft
Man walking from Tampa to New York for charity
Rob Refsnyder's bat
Michael Pineda's glove
Yankees photo day
Remembering when Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter were on "Seinfeld"
Yankees kids camp
Mark Teixeira's gluten-free diet
Paul O'Neill's birthday
Promotion for the Derek Jeter bobblehead
Remembering Bobby Abreu's debut as a Yankee
CC Sabathia and Victor Cruz at Fashion Week
Promotions for MasterCard ticket sales
Announcement of latest members of Monument park
Acknowledgement of Jason Giambi's retirement
Remembering Yankees' White House visits

In case you still think this omission of A-Rod was just an oversight, consider this: @yankees posted hundreds of photos of players on the Twitter feed this spring, including dozens of photos for Photo Day. There was not a single one of Alex Rodriguez.

Supposedly, MLB Advanced Media, and not the Yankees themselves, run the Twitter feed. But who decided to mention pretty much every player on the 40-man roster except for A-Rod? That seems like an awfully interesting "unintentional error." So much for the quote that "Alex is and will be treated like every other Yankees player.”

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