SARASOTA, FLORIDA – MARCH 02: A Tampa Bay Rays hat sits on top of a glove in the dugout during a Grapefruit League spring training game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays at Ed Smith Stadium on March 02, 2020 in Sarasota, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
The very good Tampa Bay Rays never quite get the credit they deserve for how they conduct their organization. Let’s give them their due for how they own Twitter trolls.
MLB may still be in a holding pattern after the global coronavirus threat forced Spring Training to shut down, but when it comes to crushing random guys on Twitter for being patently insufferable, there is no offseason.
Just ask the Tampa Bay Rays, whose birthday revelry in honor of Ji-Man Choi was rudely interrupted by a dude with five followers who clearly just wanted to watch the world burn.
The Rays may be a bunch of Florida Men, but that doesn’t mean they lack the gene that triggers self-respect. Their social media team is commensurately prideful, and they’re also thorough. They’ve kept receipts. And with an opportunity in their hands to own “Backup Darrell” all the way to next week, they turned their shoulders and hacked it like a hanging curveball.
Going, going, gone.
The sincere hope is that ol’ Darrell took Phoebe Buffay’s famous advice and backed up his backup, because he’s gonna have to take this Twitter account of his and burn it in a ritual pyre after the bare-bottom spanking he took from the Tampa Bay digital team.
If you needed more proof that the AL East is a relentless, ruthless place and not for the faint of heart, you got it.
Don’t be like Darrell.