One day after the biggest blunder of his career, Jon Heyman bypassed the opportunity to discuss the Arson Judge gaffe on his own podcast.
As Aaron Judge neared a free agency decision Tuesday evening, Heyman tweeted “Arson Judge appears headed to Giants.” Minutes later, Heyman deleted the tweet and retracted his report that Judge was signing with San Francisco. And hours later, Judge resigned with the New York Yankees.
Misspelling Judge’s name and sharing what turned out to be an erroneous report was a brutal blunder for Heyman, one that MLB Twitter relished the opportunity to pile on. Less than one day later, Heyman had the opportunity to address his viral Arson Judge tweet on the latest episode of his weekly podcast for the New York Post with co-host Joel Sherman.
“I never believed that going home was going to be a big lure,” Heyman said of Judge, who grew up a Giants fan. “But San Francisco is building something good there. His parents do live in Linden. Obviously, I had heard some buzz the day before, actually the day that it ended up happening, that there was a decent chance for the Giants. Some people were starting to hear that.”
There a few ways Heyman could have addressed the situation, but casually claiming he “heard some buzz” wasn’t it. The MLB Insider could have apologized for the biggest reporting mistake of his career. He could have made light of the gaffe by poking some fun at his deleted tweet. Maybe he could have even found a way to defend the information he received that led him to report Judge was going to San Francisco. Instead, Heyman chose the route of ignoring the mistake.
Heyman rushed to be first on one of the biggest free agency stories of his career and he got it wrong. Instead of reporting the news, Heyman made the news and now he’s attempting to ignore it. Maybe Heyman thinks deleting the tweet actually deleted the tweet.
[The Show: A NY Post baseball podcast with Joel Sherman & Jon Heyman]
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com