My Two Cents: Blue Jays' Anthony Bass Needs to Think Before Pressing 'Send'
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass is 35 years old and has been around baseball at different levels for 15 years now. He's not a kid, and he knows how social media works these days.
And you can't say stupid stuff without getting roasted.
Bass was just being a good husband, I suppose. He went to Twitter to rip United Airlines for how they treated his wife Sydney, who's the sister of country singer Jesse James Decker. Sydney, who is 22 weeks pregnant, was traveling alone with their two children, a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old, and the youngster made a mess, spilling popcorn — given to her by a United flight attendant, Bass said — under her seat and the surrounding areas.
The flight attendants told Sydney that she had to clean up after her children. Anthony considered that an outrage. He took to Twitter ... and hit SEND.
“The flight attendant @united just made my 22-week pregnant wife traveling with a 5-year-old and 2-year-old get on her hands and knees to pick up the popcorn mess by my youngest daughter,” Bass tweeted. “Are you kidding me?!?!”
Simple enough, right? Hardly. Twitter readers fired right back at him, wondering what was so bad about cleaning up after your own kids. Right?
The tweet, which has had more than 52 million views, had more than 14,000 comments. Most ripped away at Bass for being so entitled, and many commended United for the way they handled it.
Most of the respondents on Twitter were not sympathetic to Bass’ plight.
Bass shouldn't have made this all public, because when you rant like that, you're putting yourself — and your lovely wife and two adorable children — in a no-win situation. The general public just looks at you like a little whiner.
To be honest, he's probably not totally wrong in being upset that his wife had to clean up. We've all been on planes, and we've all seen things get spilled now and then. Bass made it worse by tweeting that United hires cleaning crews to do just that — more whininess from a pro baseball player — which isn't as true as it used to be. That falls on flight attendants even more these days, which is probably why she told them to clean up after themselves.
United did reach out to Bass and said they'd look in to it, but it's really not the point, is it? In this world of immediate social media interaction, Bass was going to get ripped for this, and it won't go away any time soon.
Bass pitched one inning in Monday night's 9-2 loss to the Houston Astros. He gave up one run and two hits. He has pitched in eight games this season, and has allowed six runs and 11 hits in 7 1/3 innings.
I know I probably don't listen to my own advice that much — think before hitting send — but it really is good advice. Especially in this case, where there's nothing to be gained from it. He had to know that the general public — and everyone who has a child that they clean up after — would react negatively.
He was able to smile about it a day later, posting a picture on Twitter of his 2-year-old holding a huge bag of popcorn. Touche!
