Why do we care so much about teenage “baseball reporters?”

I have wanted to write this for quite some time but never got around to typing it until now. In hindsight, it would have been more applicable had I produced this, say, a month ago; however, let’s use the adage “better late than never” to justify my tardiness.

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This has unquestionably been a hectic Major League Baseball offseason so far, as it feels like a record for most transactions through the first two months of any given offseason has been set. For those inquiring, that statement is not at all factually supported and is used solely for the purpose of hyperbolic discourse.

Anyway, you should get the point: a ton has happened between when free agency commenced and now. The San Diego Padres are not the worst offensive team in baseball anymore, Billy Beane‘s commitment to not conforming continued, the Los Angeles Dodgers assembled a front office full of geniuses and teenagers with nothing more than access to the internet are beating esteemed baseball reporters to the punch (reporting news).

The latter of which is what I sat down in a chair in my living room to write about. And I will — don’t you fret — but first I have to explain to those who are unaware of this teenage reporter epidemic how it came to be a thing. With that said, for the purpose of not wishing to be trite and possibly due to a thread of laziness on my end, I am going to allow VAVEL’s Dylan Callaghan-Croley to do so with a tidbit of his piece on Christmas Eve titled “Welcome To The New Age: Sport’s Journalism’s Influx Of Teenagers.”

"“During the 2013 Major League Baseball Winter Meetings, an 18-year old writer from Boston, Massachusetts, named Chris Cotillo flipped the baseball world upside down when broke not only one but two major stories that occurred during last year’s MLB offseason. Since breaking both breaking stories, the now 19-year old University of North Carolina student is a household name in baseball reporting along the likes of heralded professionals Ken Rosenthal, Buster Olney, and Joel Sherman just to name a few.Since then, teenagers have taken the sports reporting world by storm, trying to become the next Chris Cotillo after seeing the success Cotillo had in such a short time. This year, two more teenagers had the opportunity to make themselves names on the baseball writing scene. Those two teenagers, Robert Murray and Devan Fink, together were able to break the news that long-time Kansas City Royal Billy Butler would sign with the Oakland Athletics. Then for the second straight year in a row, teenagers would become featured guests on MLB Network for breaking a major story.”"

These three kids — yes, two of them are older than me and I am referring to them as kids — are the ones who did it by the imaginary rule book that exists on Twitter. They did a fine job taking advantage of the internet age, particularly with Twitter, and gained a following by obtaining inside information about the game before anyone. Cotillo, Fink and Murray deserve praise for their work.

After all, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to do what they have done, but they are just the success stories. Others teenagers have tried to emulate what they have done and it has backfired because not everything they report is accurate; something that is inevitable when presumably their sources are limited to someone they met behind a computer screen.

As a consequence of their inaccuracy, people, including actual baseball reporters, — if there are such a thing because I have yet to see the guideline where there are definitive parameters which constitutes one as a “baseball reporter” — are infuriated with these kids. The first paragraph of Awful Announcing’s Joe Lucia’s article titled “Dear Teenage MLB Reporters: Please Stop” echos many of the frustrations people have with these pubescent “reporters.”

"“There has been a growing, rage-inducing trend this MLB offseason. Numerous teenage MLB “reporters” are seeping into the fabric of the baseball rumor mill, and making the lives of beat reporters, fans, and national writers very, very difficult. Essentially, what these teens are doing is…well, I can’t even rationalize it, really. They’re throwing rumors pulled out of thin air at the wall, hoping they stick, and trying to build a base of credibility by “reporting” every single “confirmed” MLB transaction by scouring the MLB.com transaction page. In short, it’s a chore, and it’s completely worthless.”"

While many would concur with the above paragraph, I question the legitimacy of it. How the hell does it make it harder for the lives of beat reporters, fans and national writers?

Fans, with Twitters of course, may get temporarily excited with one of these kid’s false Tweets, but how does it make their lives tougher? Did they click the Retweet button and subsequently felt sort of embarrassed for believing it? I mean, I could think of millions of things worse than that.

These fans have a choice to believe what they want. It’s Twitter for Pete’s sake! Untrue things are going to be said; it is up to you to believe them or not. And if we are being honest, I do not know why one would believe these kids. If they lack credibility and have not established themselves as a trustworthy source of baseball news, why give them the benefit of the doubt? Touche for beat reporters and national writers.

Actually, I would anticipate beat reporters and national writers to be more thorough about pinpointing reliable and unreliable sources of information. On rare occasions these pundits might screw up and believe what these kids are saying. But, I confusedly ask, why it matters? Sure, they may Retweet it or something but that’s the worst case scenario I can conceivably concoct. People make mistakes, it happens. Not even Miley Cyrus is perfect. I don’t expect these beat reporters and national writers to be perfect. That would be an impossible request of any human being let alone a gullible Twitter user.

Rumors are rumors; some with credibility and others with the absence of it. Personally, I trust all rumblings with a grain of salt and I advise you to do the same. What I do not get is why people get angry over kids Tweeting inaccurate information. Obviously they don’t have the benefit of the doubt and they shouldn’t. But why is it a big deal? Just get over it; mistakes happen inevitably and people fabricate things to make themselves seem legit. This is Twitter we are talking about. What do you expect?

I know the goal for a lot of people who spew hate at these kids’ way is to try to stifle them from persisting their “imprudent” 140 character typing, but it does not work that way. Giving them attention, good or bad, will fuel their fame and if that is truly what you are trying so hard to alleviate then simply ignoring their Twitter content will be more productive.

Teenagers Tweeting false rumors should not be something that anyone cares about. People who claim that teens typing 140 characters are making their lives harder are lying or at the very least exaggerating. I guess those Tweets can be irritating, but guess what? That is what the “Unfollow,” “Block,” and “Mute” buttons are for.

Tweet on my friends, but try not to let teenage baseball reporters bring you down.

Happy Holidays!!