Yasiel Puig in 2017

We’ve seen quite a few people who aren’t professional journalists be the first to report transactions over the years thanks to their connections, from liquor store employee Katie Camlin predicting Patrick Mahomes’ extension after a Kansas City Chiefs employee bought six bottles of Dom Perignon to celebrate it to Twitter user FredTheDog04’s news of Zdeno Chara’s broken jaw last year to r/whitesox Reddit users KatyPerrysBootyHole and wetbutt23 breaking the news of the Jose Quintana trade in 2017. Now, it looks like Atlanta Braves fan Brian Chandler broke the news that that team was about to sign Yasiel Puig after seeing Puig outside an Atlanta hotel:

100 minutes later, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweeted that transaction.

Others, including Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Fox Sports, offered some credit to Chandler:

Remarkably, this is at least the second time something like this has happened with the Braves. Back in 2014, @darrenstains (he’s since deleted his Twitter account) broke the news of the team signing A.J. Pierzynski, citing his father’s encounter with Braves’ then-manager Fredi Gonzalez at a Honey Baked Ham retail location. So it’s maybe worth keeping your eyes open for famous sports figures unexpectedly in town…it might give you a chance to be an insider for a day.

[Brian Chandler on Twitter]

 

 

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.