Many sports teams have used their social media accounts to go off on competitors, but what happened with the Cleveland Indians this week was particularly notable. The AL’s Indians were involved in a four-game interleague series against the NL’s Cincinnati Reds this week, with games one and two played in Cincinnati Monday and Tuesday (and resulting in a 3-2 loss and a 4-2 win for Cleveland respectively). Games three and four were held in Cleveland Wednesday and Thursday, and ahead of Wednesday’s first pitch, the Reds decided to engage in a little social media trolling about twice-former Cleveland Cavaliers player LeBron James:
Ahh, Cleveland. So nice, LeBron left it twice. pic.twitter.com/4kOttoLgod
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) August 5, 2020
The Indians’ account followed up that day with a joke about Cincinnati’s former NBA team, the Cincinnati Royals (now the Sacramento Kings). The Reds responded with a wildly-inaccurate tweet:
They’ve never lost a game.
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) August 5, 2020
Over their time in Cincinnati (1957-72), the Royals actually went 555-634 during the regular season, so yes, they lost a lot of NBA games. (Something whoever runs the Reds’ Twitter account might want to look up.) But in any case, the Indians were able to get the last word on the field, winning 2-0 Wednesday and 13-0 Thursday. And that led to a solid joke:
Ahh, Cincinnati. So nice, we beat them thrice.#OurTribe | #WWWindians pic.twitter.com/jQFtgNM54H
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) August 7, 2020
They also trolled Reds’ pitcher Trevor Bauer (who didn’t start during this series):
I believe it’s spelled R E D S W I N https://t.co/aPCZDmZMPs
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) August 3, 2020
You wouldn't win a spelling bee, but Cleveland still has love for you. ❤️ https://t.co/lk1S32GDYW
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) August 7, 2020
So perhaps the Reds’ trolling here didn’t work out for the best.
