David Price was a little shaken after losing Game 2 in Boston on Saturday. That was obvious to anyone who read his Twitter feed.
Price had a mini social media meltdown after the Rays lost 7-4 to fall into an 0-2 hole in the best-of-five ALDS. He rattled off a series of tweets in which he promoted his baseball accolades and sounded rather immature. The pitcher later apologized for his tirade, and manager Joe Maddon thinks that Price will likely use social media more appropriately in the future.
“I don’t want to take one isolated incident and try to turn it into something. I think that’s something we do nationally a little bit too often, too,” Maddon said Sunday. “So I don’t want to take one isolated incident and try to make more out of than it actually is. I have a lot of faith in David. I think David did the right thing after he had done the wrong thing. And I believe in the future you’re going to see better judgment.”
Maddon is familiar with the social media scene. He tweets frequently, and once used Twitter to call the Red Sox “cowardly” after the benches cleared in the ninth inning of a game last season. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the skipper isn’t overreacting when it comes to Price’s rant.
“Again, I really hate to try to legislate behavior when it comes to those kind of moments. Just like your kids, you try to give them the right thoughts or right ideas, the correct word is warn them in advance of the potential consequences,” Maddon said. “But sometimes you’ve got to make a mistake in order to come out on the other side and be better for what you do. So I’m not ‑‑ I don’t like legislating anything, actually, when it comes down to personal behavior.
“I do like trying to set a good example or trying to conversationally, if you ask me, I’m going to tell you what I think,” Maddon continued. “I don’t necessarily try to impose my mores on you, even as a manager. I think philosophically with us — I’ve talked about it a lot — one of our strengths is that we do permit a lot of freedom. When you permit a lot of freedom you normally get a lot of respect in return from accountable people. And I think that’s what you normally get here.”
Price’s Twitter rant came shortly after the left-hander expressed frustration to reporters with how long David Ortiz stayed in the batter’s box after hitting a home run down the right field line in the eighth inning. That situation has apparently been resolved with a phone call.
Everyone has a rough day from time to time. Not everyone vents about it on Twitter, but it’s hard to care too much when athletes look foolish on social media nowadays.
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