3
2012
Was The Mets GM Trolling Mets Fans On Twitter?
An article by 
You’ve heard the term used all the time, but what exactly is a troll and what is trolling, and was the Mets GM guilty of being a troll or trolling his own fan base on Twitter in recent days?
I’ll let you be the judge on Alderson, but first lets define what a troll is. No, we’re not talking about those dwarf-sized, hairy, humanoid beings that come out and attack you from the shadows of the forests with their crudely made weapons and wooden clubs.
The Urban Dictionary describes internet trolling as when people say stuff that they know will prompt someone to respond with a trolled reply and/or replying to comments that are blatantly from a troll. This is especially true when a troll first makes his comment/reply, and (usually many) people respond, either trying to correct the troll, or express anger at the statement. At that point, the trolling was successful and has been fed.
Lets now examine Exhibit A:
The Intended Target: Over 90% of Sandy Alderson’s followers are loyal Mets fans.
The Intended Purpose: I could be wrong, but it certainly appears to be a swipe at them.
The Result: A successfully executed case of trolling. Trolls-In-Training take heed, this is how it;s done.
Today, Sandy Alderson took to Twitter again and in a probable attempt to undo the carnage he created with his first tweet, took a veiled shot at Pablo Sandoval himself.
By using the word carnage I don’t mean that anyone was physically hurt or that the villagers were rioting at Citi Field with torches blazing in the dark of night, not at all. We’re only talking about the rumpled feelings of a few thousand Mets fans who were apparently being called out for not being better fans than San Francisco Giants fans.
It’s become apparent that the only time the Mets GM logs onto his Twitter account is to occasionally address a recent happening with a few choice and well calculated words that are always dripping with sarcasm. That’s okay when your 16-years old or your name is Charlie Sheen or Stephen Colbert, but most people don’t know what to make of it when it comes from the executive charged with turning around a New York sports franchise that has been the brunt of jokes for the better part of the last half decade.
Of course Mets fans all wanted to see David Wright voted into the All Star game, and the shock of being usurped at the last minute by Pablo Sandoval was a real punch to the gut for all of us. But lets give credit to the Giants front office who put on a full court press to get the fans to vote in droves, and vote in droves they did.
Maybe if the Mets had made as valiant an attempt at promoting David Wright as they did in revamping the bullpen this offseason, this would all be a moot point. But trolling the fan base was probably not the way to go here. Kicking someone when they’re already down never translates well in a tweet regardless of how much sarcasm or humor you soak it in.
This will all be forgotten by the weekend, and no real harm was done. But the Mets GM may need to send his fan base a box of chocolates or something to patch things up.
Your thoughts and comments are always appreciated.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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I’m taking this another way: voting Sandoval in over Wright this year is an outrage that exposes the frivolity and pettiness of the All Star Voting System. There’s NO WAY on God’s Green Acre that Sandoval should be voted in over Wright THIS YEAR.
It’s a shame and i’m sure there are other examples, but this cries out for some ombudsman, maybe the All Star manager, to have the final ‘vote’ on who starts the game. One might even be justified in claiming that Sandoval shouldn’t even be named to the team this year. His stats are ‘good’ but not stellar.
Sandy’s right in prodding us. i’m ashamed i didn’t vote. i think the All Star GAme has become a sham and this is the truth slamming through with sirens.
Don’t be ashamed for not cheating. I examined the Giants MLB site that reported gleefully the ill-gotten gain. I congratulated Giant fans for using the means at their disposal in supporting their players; however, I reminded them that if selection was based on merit, the Giants would have zero starters.
They actually took it well, as my main comment was lathered with compliments to their fanbase and franchise. They seemed emboldened as many bragged about the number of votes they cast, 150 here, 175 there, 200 from a few others.
And so that’s what it’s come down to – in a game that now determines home field advantage in our National Pastime’s pre-eminent contest, the league tacitly approves cheating to assemble the roster and determine when players play, apart from their relative merit.
Perhaps Mr. Alderson did not know that many of the Giant fans obtained access to Barry Bonds residual “Clear”, which sustained their illicit effort.
Bravo, Sandy Alderson, bravo!!!
Here’s a solution to the current farce that predominates All Star selection:
Next year, all Met fans should vote as many times as possible for Jason Bay, regardless of his performance. I mean, he IS a nice guy and maybe has been overlooked in previous years. Why not give him an ego boost in the last year of a failed contract?
That would send a clear message to MLB… Don’t F#ck with David Wright!!!
I have a solution!
I think Mets fans who have Twitter Accounts should give Sandy Alderson the “Jon Rauch Twitter Treatment”.
#StayClassy
Or they can vote for their players to make the All Star Game.
Mets fans voted unfortunately the SF Giants had a plan in place to encourage more fans to Vote multiplee times(25 limit).
For crying out loud Freddy Sanchez whom hasnt seen the field ALL YEAR got 2.2 million votes…that isnt just the fans thats the organization driving the fans. Everyone always states baseball is a business (which is true) so the fans would be consumers.The Mets need to do a better job selling their brand.
Besides its an exhibition game after it is over no one will care whether Wright started or not other than his groupies.
People really have a bug up their butts about a twitter comment?
Maybe he meant that as a slight at the Giants and how they pulled it off. Apparently he over estimated the intelligence of a segment of Mets fans.
Joe D
I think you made a funny here. Well played Joe D. Well played.
Don’t have a Twitter account, don’t want a Twitter account.
Only see Twitter comments that role on certain Mets blog. And that’s more than enough.
Last thing I’ve got time for is keeping up with some of these ‘Twitter duels’ I’ve been reading about lately.
I don’t disagree with you and thought it was a poor choice of words by Sandy. I also appreciate the way you presented your opinion without the ranting that took place on twitter. There was no need to be as indignant and crass as so many were today toward Sandy. Thank you for taking the high road.
ever think he was taking a swipe at the AS voting process itself? As in, pointing out that the Giants essentially “cheated” to rig the vote? And that was something he couldn’t really come out and say directly.
Just an alternate explanation, that I know does not fit the agenda.
Why didn’t he tweet it to the Giants if that were the case? And why didnt he clarify it to Mets fans after it blew up on twitter?
Why does every time Alderson says something on twitter, it ends up on Sportscenter?
I doubt anyone here needs a definition of trolling.
You’re probably right, but thanks for providing us an example.
I just liked that you cited The Urban Dictionary.
But, what’s wrong in this case if Sandy did troll and tweak us on twitter? Either we dropped the ball, and/or Giants fans & hackers gamed the system. Also, voting multiple times for your pet player, whether for Sandoval, Wright or Jeter, has got to go. Stupid concept. What are we, Chicago in the old bad days: vote early & often?!
TRS,
With this comment you just trolled lol
You criticizing Alderson? After the way you kissed his (and the Wilpons) butt since the Ice Age?
Get real…. you have no credibility.
So because I didn’t bash Alderson in the offseason, I have no right to criticize him now? The guy before you thinks all I do is bash Alderson. Luckily I write for my own enjoyment and I’m still privileged and honored that over 10,000 different Mets fans a day care to read my opinions. The fact that some think I’m pro-Alderson while others think I’m anti-Alderson only means I’m being fair and balanced which is what I strive for. BTW which Mets blogs do you go to for credibility? Have a Happy 4th.
I call Bullshit! You trashed Alderson plenty….
Just not enough for My good! LOL
I agree with Mets GM. I’m tired of giants fans overcrediting their players… They’re decent at best… Funny how there’s a bunch of giants fans all of a sudden… Didn’t remember there being so many before the 2010 season… Lol….. Wright has better stats period.. much better 3B than Pablo..
SF didn’t just screw over Wright. Buster Posey shouldn’t be starting over Yadier Molina or Carlos Ruiz and while Melky Cabrera is having a nice season, Ryan Braun and Andrew McCutchen should be starting over him and really even Giancarlo Stanton and Jay Bruce are doing better.
Even in the AL, it’s hard to justify starting a catcher with a .235BA in Mike Napoli and if Jeter didn’t have the popularity of being Jeter, is he really the best SS in the AL?
It’s too bad, normally the Mets are able to vote guys in that may not be so deserving. I guess I can be blamed to. Normally I vote as many times as I can with a few different Email accounts, but I didn’t this year. I just assumed that Wright was a shoe in and no one else was close so I didn’t bother.
Maybe it’s time to change the rules on voting again. maybe have the fans pick the top three players at each position and let the players vote on which of the three deserve to start.
Maybe the whole country of Venezuela voted for Sandoval to help him get in?
You are probably right. If McCain and Palin had won the election that wouldn’t have been possible because they were going to block foreign IP addresses from accessing American sites, and Americans would have been unable to access all the illegal porn sites that operate in all those former eastern block nations in Europe.
Does anyone know how many votes a single person can cast? I do not vote, because I just do not have the time to spend casting 600 votes or whatever the number is that is allowed. Why not just allow one voter per valid person? Casting mualtiple ballots is a farce and a turnoff to me. If I cast just one vote and others can vote essentially unlimited times, then my vote is meaningless. Hence, I do not volte in this sham popularity contest.
As far as trolling goes, in my opinion, this entire site is nothing more than an exercise in trolling.
I think your allowed 25 Ballots per Signup.
That is correct 25 per email address. So what the FO of SF did was create all these email address for 15 people to see in a room and technically make unlimited votes. Asked Jason Stark of ESPN if due to the abuse of the system should Selig prohibit such occurrences and he felt the word abuse was a little strong but he should absolutely address it. I believe he is a Phili fan so I imagine his definition of the word abuse would be a little different if it happened against another team…
Even with the 15 People they got it still doesn’t add up to much.
They would have needed close to 1000 Email addresses to swing the vote the way it was…
Nope I have a MUCH better explanation….
Where is Silicon Valley located? And who works there? What kind of work do they do?
The best Computer and Web Technology brains on the planet thats who!
This was done via Post Bomb to the server bypassing the account security entirely!
That form you fill out is what checks the security not the server the votes gets posted to.
So if you create a script to bypass the form and fool the server into thinking what your sending is from the site the form is hosted on you can add 2 Mil votes in approximatly 15 minutes!
What the Giants did was not really feasible it would take you a month or two to fill out the form enough times to sway the vote…
Nope the Boys in Silicon Valley who all live in San Fran decided to have some fun with the ASG and being REAL geniuses (Hell they probably developed the software the voting runs on!) managed to throw Egg on Selig’s face!
Yes 25 ballots and every time you hit enter a new popup ad and opportunity for MLB to try and sell you something. This sin’t about a fair vote it’s about ad impressions. Those 1 million extra votes for Sandoval equated to thousands of dollars in revenue.
As for Sandy, he really does need to spend more time with his grandchildren and stop playing on twitter with with the worst of the worst fans. It took me all of 3 days to figure out who used twitter and to what end and saw it was mostly for morons and those who enjoy following morons. I think Sandy could make better use of his time than to pander to a few thousand obsessed and idiotic Mets fans.
he had better sign Wright now or he might be stuck trying to sign Sandoval after pretty much insulting him!
LOL
Sandy,
How about SHUT YOUR MOUTH & make a good move for ONCE! This guy is just as snarky and sarcastic as his minions. I guess if this is leadership by example you can’t find a better example. Everything Sandy does has a high minded concept that the masses are incapable of understanding due to their ignorance, stupidity or lack of Sanity. The GM of this team is a jerk and the whole world is getting to know how much of a db-ag he truly is.
Donal, TRS, Stick and Salty to the rescue. Nah, they don’t have an agenda. Geez why don’t you guys just stick to Mets Blog and Amazing Avenue? At least you won’t be turned off by the constant Alderson shilling which is what you seek for here. And talk about trolling?