The best satire is satire that feels almost plausible, and therefore credit must go to The Ringer’s Michael Baumann for his Twitter joke about Trevor Bauer’s ostensible recovery process.
Trevor Bauer says that the doctors' timeline for his return is based on outdated mainstream medicine and he's begun a course of blood transfusions and colloidal silver to rid his body of CIA nanites. He anticipates missing two starts, three tops.
— Michael Baumann (@MichaelBaumann) August 17, 2018
That’s good! It’s obviously a joke, but it’s the kind of joke that sends up Bauer’s eccentricity and, uh, possible distrust of the government. But surely no one could read Baumann’s tweet and think it was actually serious reporting!
Except for, no, MLB Network did exactly that, sharing a screengrab of the tweet and presenting it as a report last night:
Deadspin has video of the moment. Baumann immediately pointed out the actual nature of the tweet:
I've had more than one person react like this is real and I kinda feel bad but I also kinda feel like it proves the point I was trying to make about Trevor Bauer. Poe's Law is a fickle mistress. https://t.co/avDgACM39v
— Michael Baumann (@MichaelBaumann) August 17, 2018
Because Trevor Bauer has rabbit ears bigger than the antennae on his drones, he immediately caught wind of the incident, and he was not pleased.
For anyone who thinks this is actually true, it’s not. Saw this on the crawl of espn. Couldn’t hear the audio so not sure how they’re presenting it but it is not true at all. @espn https://t.co/cwITJLrrxi
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) August 18, 2018
And you know what? Trevor Bauer has a rare point! He also mentions ESPN ran with it too, and if they did (even just on the Bottom Line) that’s just as unfortunate as MLB Network. This isn’t even falling for a fake account, this is misreading an obvious joke from a baseball writer who isn’t even really a newsbreaker. Because it’s Trevor Bauer, though, he had to press the issue further:
Hey @MLBNetwork and @espn I would like public statements on social media and on your networks clarifying that the information you wrongly reported as fact earlier regarding my recovery timetable and process is false and not a quote from me. The report is damaging and absurd.
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) August 18, 2018
It’s not really damaging for Bauer as much as it is for MLBN and any other network who ran with it. They’re the obvious butts of the joke in this scenario. But Bauer has an intense lack of faith in the media, so he’s currently setting the record straight (even though, again, it’s already straight.)
I would except then all this bs about me would be floating out there and affecting my reputation among my peers and people in the industry. If I could trust media to write and report accurate information I wouldn’t need to be on here to tell people the truth
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) August 18, 2018
That’s right media! If anyone’s going to damage Trevor Bauer’s reputation among his peers and people in the industry, it’s going to be Trevor Bauer himself! For his part, Baumann seems pretty annoyed at how it’s spun out of control:
For fuck's sake, ESPN, I *said* it was a joke
— Michael Baumann (@MJ_Baumann) August 18, 2018
ESPN and MLB Network thought this was real, and not a joke, and put it on TV and it got back to Trevor Bauerhttps://t.co/avDgACM39v
— Michael Baumann (@MJ_Baumann) August 18, 2018
God I hope so. MLB Network cited my name and affiliation when they ran with it last night
— Michael Baumann (@MichaelBaumann) August 18, 2018
And there we have it. It was a joke so well-measured that it managed to make it to air, where it got back to the original subject. We’ll have to wait and see if Trevor Bauer gets those apologies he asked for.
[Deadspin]
