Welcome to the ruthless world of social media, Mike Aviles. In this universe, even utility players are fair game. The Red Sox shortstop probably thought he would become an every-day starter in the MLB before people started drumming up hoaxes about him on Twitter. According to the Boston Herald, a fake Twitter account created in Aviles’ name announced on Saturday that he had been traded to the Rays. Aviles found out about it when his phone started blowing up with calls and texts from friends and family.
“It was crazy,” he said. “People were asking me what’s going on. I had to tell people it’s not me saying those things. I haven’t been traded.
“It’s kind of cool, like someone actually likes me enough to make something up about me. But it’s almost like, who really has time to do that? You have time to go and make up a fake account? Really? I didn’t care in the first place, but when you’re tweeting stuff like that, you’re causing problems for me. I’m here to play baseball.”
Welcome to 2012. Aviles said he has asked the Red Sox to contact Twitter and have the account deactivated. Now that everyone knows it bothered him, another one will likely be right behind this one if it’s shut down. Behold the power of Twitter.
