Analysis by Courtney Wright in SRM 334 (section 1)
After the frustrating game 2 of the ALDS, David Price took to twitter to let his followers be aware of how he felt. His frustrations stemmed from the TBS commentator’s comments on air and David Ortiz’s reaction to his two homeruns. On national television, TBS commentators Dirk Hayhurst and Tom Verducci said, “This is the playoffs, you can’t take any chances. He was out there past his prime. He should have come out sooner”. Price reacted to the commentators by insulting them and calling them nerds while implying they had never played sports at a higher level.
After the media took such notice to Price’s rant, he decided to send out an apology to all those who were offended by his words and disappointed with what he said. Along with tweeting an apology, Price reached out in person to the media and to David Ortiz. Ortiz replied with saying how they respect one another as players and that is was “no big deal”. The media made it seem like Price had it out for Ortiz and vice versa, when in reality it was just post-season competition, there were no personal vendettas against each other.
In light of the media coverage of Price’s twitter rampage, Rays’ GM, Joe Maddon, chimed in with his opinion of setting social media restrictions by stating, “I really hate to try to legislate behavior when it comes to these kinds of moments…David did the right thing after he did the wrong thing”. He does not think it is his place to make such decisions for his athletes and that they must learn from their mistakes and to respect the media. As we have discussed in class, respecting the media is important behavior by professional athletes in our modern day society. Price made it known how sorry he was for his actions and has learned a lesson he will most likely not make again any time soon.
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Analysis by Monica Paolicelli in SRM 334 (section 1)
After David Ortiz, of the Boston Red Sox, hit a homerun and watched it intently from home plate, David Price was furious with his performance throughout the night with a 7-4 loss. He called it a “dark spot in his career” and the TBS commentators could not agree more. Dirk Hayhurst and Tom Verducci commentated this ALDS game 2 and Hayhurst said “Price should have been pulled from the game earlier, you can’t take any chances. He was out there past his prime. He should’ve come out sooner.” Price was extremely embarrassed by this and criticized the TBS broadcast crew as being nerds and water boys during their sports careers. He took to Twitter with this tweet after the game, “Dirk Hayhurst … COULDN'T hack it … Tom Verducci wasn't even a water boy in high school … but they can still bash a player … SAVE IT NERDS” -@DAVIDprice14. Price’s criticisms proved nonsense as Verducci has covered the sport of baseball for decades and Hayhurst made the majors. David Price is saying that only those at or above his talent and accomplishment level have the right to criticize his performance. Do commentators, for any sport, have the right to criticize performance when a professional player is playing badly? I believe that they do have this right to inform the public audience with who is having a record-breaking game and who is having a bad performance that night. Athletes like David Price need to be aware that they are on television with a wide audience and will likely be criticized for performance. The media has the right to produce stories based on performances, even though they have never played professional baseball. This current event is all about respecting social media as well as professional commentators. David Price was angry, took to Twitter, and he definitely learned his lesson. He sent out an apology tweet shortly after explaining how he embarrassed himself, his family, and his organization. General Manager, Joe Maddon commented about installing social media policies throughout the organization with, “I really hate to try to legislate behavior when it comes to these kinds of moments … David did the right thing after he did the wrong thing.” Respecting all the constituents involved in sports media as well as coaches and other players takes a lot of self-control and humbleness. This is rare to find in professional sports where all athletes have stellar backgrounds and multiple honors.
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