By far the most interesting story of the week for me came out of Chicago, where a White Sox employee (who just happens to be the manager's son) resigned over posts made via his Twitter account.
It seems Oney Guillen, Ozzie's son, was upset over the team's decision to forbid his dad from launching his own website, and he voiced his displeasure via his Twitter account (@OneyRoberto, 533 followers and counting).
The issue had been brewing for months. According to various media reports, during the off-season a consultant convinced Ozzie Guillen that he could make money via social media, such as selling advertising on his own website. He set up a Twitter account (@OzzieGuillen, 43,011 followers and counting), and had planned to launch his own site.
These developments were a surprise to the White Sox. The Sox allowed him to keep his Twitter account, as long as it focused on non-baseball matters. The planned website was to be focused on the White Sox and baseball-related news. The Sox told Guillen he could not launch the site.
Oney Guillen fired back via Twitter, and according to the Chicago Tribune sent the following post, which has since been taken down: "The Guillen family just got screwed over or (bleeped)...but don't worry we have our own way of handling this."
He also said: "I hope the dorks aren't running the organization or else were (bleeped). 3 geeks who never played baseball a day in there life telling expe ..."
Oney Guillen played two seasons in the Minors after being drafted by the Sox in the 36th round of the 2007 draft.
Oney Guillen had also made several other off-color comments on the site, including several replies to Chicago Sun-Times beat writer Joe Cowley (@cst_sox, 3,057 followers).
The Sox reportedly asked Oney Guillen to stop tweeting, and he offered to resign instead.
Then, about 15 hours ago, Ozzie Guillen posted the following on his Twitter site: "Me tocaron donde mas me duele y tengo que estar listo para lo que venga como siempre lo e hecho." According to the Tribune, the post loosely translates to: "They hit me where it hurts most and I have to be ready for whatever is coming just like I've always done."
The funny part to me about this whole story is that if there was ever a segment of the population who you never expected to embrace social media and emerging technology it's baseball managers (with the exception of a few outliers like the Rays' Joe Maddon, aka @RaysJoeMaddon).
Could you ever imagine Bobby Cox checking the weather on his iPhone? Jim Leyland posting a tweet while on a road trip? Charlie Manuel updating his Facebook status?
But I digress.
One would think that teams in the big four leagues would have already established social media policies for their employees, particularly given the episode in Philadelphia in March of 2009, when a part-time stadium operations employee was fired for voicing his displeasure with the Eagles via Facebook when veteran safety Brian Dawkins signed with the Broncos.
It will be interesting to see if this latest episode forces more local sports teams to develop uniform policies to regulate their employees' web postings, and make it clear what is and is not allowed.
Here are a couple of links to articles about the controversy:
Ozzie Guillen In Flap Over Son
Tensions Between Ozzie, Williams Gets Personal
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