Stephen A. Smith ripped on Twitter over ignorant baseball tweet

September 22, 2015

Read

For the second time in three days, Stephen A. Smith’s poor use of Twitter is making headlines. On Sunday it was his tweet about Jay Cutler that got him in trouble. On Tuesday it was a tweet about the Yankees showing his embarrassingly little knowledge of the team that led to the backlash.

Andrew Miller, who has been lights out as the Yankees’ closer all season, gave up a solo home run with one out in the ninth to Dioner Navarro that tied the game with Toronto at 3-3. Miller then loaded up the bases before striking out Josh Donaldson to get out of the jam. The home run led to this tweet from Smith:

Boy do I miss Mariano Rivera. Some Yankee Non-Closer just gave up a solo shot in the bottom of the night, allowing the Blue Jays to tie 3-3.

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) September 23, 2015

That “Some Yankee Non-Closer” would be Miller, who is the Yankees’ closer, and who is now 34/36 (94 percent) on save chances this season. That is a higher success rate than Mariano Rivera had in all but two of his 13 seasons as Yankees closer since the blown saves stat began being kept in 2002.

So not only did Smith not know Miller’s name, nor did he realize he was the team’s closer, but he was also clueless about how good Miller has been all year.

Luckily there are plenty of sports fans who aren’t as ignorant as Smith when it comes to the Yankees, and they were quick to point out how mistaken the commentator was. Even Hall of Famer Jim Palmer had to tell Smith how wrong he was.

@stephenasmith Non closer?? 34-35 saves?? Focus. #getinthegame #Yankees

— Jim Palmer (@Jim22Palmer) September 23, 2015

Below are some of the other outstanding responses Smith’s pathetic tweet elicited.

@stephenasmith You'd think "pays attention to sports" would be somewhere on that job duties list. Ok, go back to yelling. Not mad, promise.

— Can I Get A Wigness? (@MitchWigness) September 23, 2015

@stephenasmith only his second blown save of the season…but you're having trouble with your takes this week…so I get it.

— Patrick Carozza (@CarozzaStrength) September 23, 2015

@stephenasmith is this the first Yankees game you've watched this year? Andrew Miller has been lights out

— Phillip Marks (@PhillipMarks) September 23, 2015

@stephenasmith COME ON BRO!!!! Andrew Miller is NOW 34/36 Have u been watching all year. I love Mo too, but EVEN Mo has blown some saves.

— Ivan S. Harris (@IvanSHarris) September 23, 2015

@stephenasmith Miller has been one of the best in baseball smh

— Jordan (@MidwestATLFALC) September 23, 2015

@stephenasmith stop commentating when you started watching 5 days ago

— Gavin Smith (@GavinSmith_) September 23, 2015

@stephenasmith stick to racism

— gscool89 (@gscool89) September 23, 2015

@stephenasmith I'm not a Yankee fan but apparently neither are you.. Complete disrespect for your closer, especially as a "journalist."

— CLIFF (@CKCash30) September 23, 2015