THE ONLY FREAKOUT HERE IS "TANAKAMANIA"

I took exception to what Brendan Kuty implied today when he wrote in NJ.com that everyone in the Twitter word was involved in a Masahiro Tanaka “freakout.” What does that mean anyway?  The headline alone annoyed me... “Masahiro Tanaka causes Twitter freakout, confusing followers”. 

決めれん(･_･;
— 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA (@t_masahiro18) January 21, 2014

Don’t even bother clicking on his article, I read it for you. The only thing I pulled away from it was the fact that Kuty didn’t participate in the “freakout” and got to it late, only to observe.  So, with it, he did his best “Monday morning quarterback” and insinuated that many of us, were stupid, confused and chaotic in our attempts to get the story right, or in some cases, first.  Well, isn’t that the business?   I guess he wakes up later than the rest of us.  

Stand down, folks. Masahiro Tanaka's tweet says that he "cannot decide." (via @IchiroReport)
— Robert Murray (@RobertMurrayMLB) January 21, 2014

"I can't decide~" @t_masahiro18 決めれん(･_･;
— Patrick Newman (@npbtracker) January 21, 2014

@npbtracker can't decide his new team? does he say that specifically?
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) January 21, 2014

That being said, know this; there were top notch baseball people involved in today’s Tanaka Twitter Trip-up.   In other words, there was plenty of innocence to it all and let’s be frank; the “freakout” isn’t that no one knew what Tanaka was saying. No, the “freak out” was something that was created well before today.  It was created by reporters like Kuty, trying to sell their rags.   

Put it this way, type in “Tanaka” anywhere these days… his name is everywhere.  So, the Star-Ledger, Bergen Record, even Bleeding Yankee Blue and Greedy Pinstripes wrote about it… because it’s a big story.  Not small, insignificant OR fake.  Masahiro Tanaka is very real. So... if we hang on every word Tanaka writes on Twitter, days before he decides which team he’s going to pick, we’re allowed to make mistakes… as long as we get the info out there!   I don’t need Daddy Kuty re-capping the whole situation after the fact.  All it does is fill up his paper on our progress.  Really... what did he do after the record was finally corrected by the likes of Ken Rosenthal and Bryan Hoch and Craig Calcaterra anyway? Nothing. This is Hardball Talk's final comment once everything was figured out below:

"Oh boy. It’s not even that he can’t decide which team he wants to play for. He was referring to not being able to decide which Twitter avatar to use.

Wow. I know when I’m beat. I am officially out of the Tanaka Tea Leaves Reading business."

 

Was there a lot of excitement from us sports guys today because Masahiro Tanaka wrote he couldn’t decide?  Sure there was.  It really doesn’t matter if him "not deciding" was about his team, his avatar or even his socks. We wanted to tell our readers the story.  Is that a crime? Nope. Is it a crime that the rest were weeding through it all to translate and determine what Tanaka said and meant? Nope. The crime is a “reporter” coming in after the fact and taking the easy road.  I’m not pointing fingers… but it seems obvious to me.

Seriously Brendan… you’re better than that.

In fact, ladies and gentlemen... you want a good story by Kuty? Read this one: "Alex Rodriguez should 'be honest with himself' during suspension, David Ortiz says". That one will truly get you all riled up about Big Papi... who the hell made him Baseball's Ambassador?

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