Xenophon Strategies

This Is Not Your Father's Trade Deadline

Blake Rhodes

As a baseball fan, the best week of the year save the end of the season and playoffs is the one leading up to the July 31^st trade deadline.  There has always been intrigue and rumors, but with the advent of social media it’s grown even better….for the fans.  Sure, it’s great for Major League Baseball for people to constantly talk about their players and teams, but for the players and club officials it can be a stressful time.

Memories of rushing to change each of the eight televisions sets in the clubhouse away from ESPN so that three players wouldn’t learn that they had been traded to the Cincinnati Reds before they could be informed by Dusty Baker, the then-San Francisco Giants manager, were jogged recently when I read about how Bengie Molina learned that he had been traded by the Giants to the Texas Rangers earlier month. 

I think Bengie stated it perfectly when he blogged, “the way I found out is a sign of the speed-of-light information superhighway.”  You see, he was traded while he and his Giants teammates were on a flight to Colorado.  As most of us do when we land, we turn on our smart phones to check voicemails, e-mails, Twitter, Facebook, etc.  Well, baseball players are no different.  As Bengie wrote:

“We were landing in Denver last night and Travis Ishikawa asked me something like, "Do you know what happened?''

"No, what happened?'' I asked, but he didn't answer.

Then Freddy Sanchez sat down next to me, "Hey, are you OK?''

"Yeah, what's going on?''

"Are you going to be OK? I'm sorry, man. I'm so sorry,'' he said.

I still didn't know what he was talking about.

Then Pat Burrell says, "It's been an honor playing with you. You're a class act.''

I guess everyone had seen it on the internet or had received messages about it. I turned on my phone and there was a text from (his wife) Jamie: "We're off to Texas.''

I thought, "What the heck?''

When I reached Jamie on the phone, she told me it was all over the news: I had been traded for a relief pitcher and a player to be named later.”

Professional sports present a different lifestyle, especially when you don’t get to choose where you live or who you work for.  Agreed, most athletes get paid handsomely, but imagine walking into work and you co-worker tells you, “I just saw on Twitter that they’re moving you to the office on the West Coast and they want you there tomorrow.”  Not exactly the best way to promote employee morale.

When I was with the Giants, the general manager Brian Sabean tried extremely hard to make sure the players heard messages like these from either the manager or him and not someone else.  The problem in this case was that they were waiting for the Commissioner’s Office to approve the trade and make it official, thus the trade was not official and they could not comment or even tell Bengie.

The point is social media has become a great tool because it provides instantaneous information, and sometimes premature information.

Tweet this link

« return to blog | Jul 29, 2010 | media relations | social media