By Tim Dahlberg
Associated Press
One thing Ozzie Guillen has never had is a problem expressing himself.
In English or Spanish, often in a hybrid of both. In the middle of the fifth inning or in the managerís office after the game. To an umpire who doesnít want to hear him, and to the media which almost always does.
Just the kind of guy Twitter was invented for. Or not.
Give Guillen the chance to express himself in 140 characters or less and the next thing you know heís in the clubhouse, serving a two-game timeout for violating baseballís social media policy. His 129,000 or so followers may have been enlightened by his comments after being tossed from a game against the Yankees, but the White Sox manager seems to be done tweeting for now.
ěI donít blame Major League Baseball for being upset with me,î Guillen said. ěI made a mistake.î
So did Carlton Cole, the West Ham soccer player who took to Twitter to joke that Englandís game against Ghana last month was really a trap by the British government to find illegal immigrants. Cole later deleted the comment, but the damage had already been done and he was fined some $33,000 by the Football Association.
Coleís teammate Danny Gabbidon apparently didnít learn anything from the dustup. He was charged by the FA with ěimproper conduct and/or bringing the game into disreputeî over his April 16 tweet that used an expletive in response to criticism by fans after West Ham lost to Aston Villa.
ěU will never get another tweet from me again u just donít get it do you. Bye bye,î Gabbidon added.
If it was only that simple. Breaking up with Twitter is hard to do.
Tennis player Donald Young did it last week, shutting down his Twitter account for good after having to apologize profusely for an expletive-filled tweet telling his followers he was sick of the treatment he received from the U.S. Tennis Association over a possible wild-card entry into the French Open.
Young found out that the ability to speak unfiltered through Twitter can be dangerous in the heat of the moment.
ěI think Iím done with that,î he said. ěItís brought me nothing but trouble thus far. I was good without it and before it, and I donít need to know what everyoneís doing every 15 minutes.î
The problem with most athletes, though, is that theyíre narcissists at heart and think fans want to know what theyíre doing every 15 minutes. Theyíve built cults that are sometimes rewarded with nuggets of information like the one Serena Williams dispensed the other day. She announced to her 2 million followers that she hadnít eaten sugar for 24 hours and was going to bed so she wouldnít be tempted to have a cookie.
And, after being hounded for the last 18 months by the media to tell his deepest secrets, Tiger Woods took to Twitter a few days ago to provide the real scoop.
As in ice cream. Woods revealed that his favorite is vanilla with ó gasp! ó rainbow sprinkles.
Thatís more information than Shaquille OíNealís 3.7 million followers have gotten recently. TheóRealóShaq claims to be ěvery quotatiousî but he hasnít said a thing about whether heís recovered enough to play Sunday when the Boston Celtics begin their playoff series with the Miami Heat.
Occasionally, though, we do find out some real news on Twitter.
On Thursday, golfer Lorena Ochoa announced ó in both English and Spanish ó that she was expecting her first child. And Woods finally gave us the real reason why he has played so few tournaments in his comeback.
ěIím hurt,î he tweeted.
And then thereís Rory McIlroy, the 21-year-old golfer from Northern Ireland who plays like Woods used to and acts like Woods needs to. McIlroy was still dazed by his meltdown at the Masters when he took to Twitter to congratulate Charl Schwartzel for winning the green jacket.
McIlroy didnít even need all 140 characters to show he is a class act.
ěGreat player and even better guy!î McIlroy tweeted. ěVery happy for him and his family!î
Not exactly the sentiments injured Montreal Canadien Max Pacioretty had about one of his opponents last week when he got on Twitter during a double-overtime game between Montreal and Boston.
Being funny in 140 characters or less is tricky, as Pacioretty found out when he tweeted that ěthis game is longer than (Bruins forward Brad) marchands nose.î
It wasnít long before Pacioretty was sending out a second tweet.
ěI was trying to be funny earlier, and it didnít work,î he said. ěI apologize to marchand and wonít try to be funny that way in the future.î
Not a bad idea. Like all athletes inhabiting the brave new world of Twitter, Pacioretty should be careful about sticking to the basics.
Like telling us what kind of ice cream he likes best.