With the emergence of popular social media venues such as Facebook and Twitter, the player and fan can interact directly. The outcomes aren’t always pretty.

During the off-season, when St. Louis Cardinals closer Jason Motte created and publicized his Twitter presence, I winced. Every player has bad days, but there is no single position that matches the volatility of closing, with its immediate highs and lows.

It is one thing to interact with fans when there are no games, but even the best closers are going to blow saves. When the lows come, they will be fast, hard and painful.

At those points in time, interaction between the angry fan and the athlete would best be insulated. Twitter has no such buffer, however.

In all fairness, after Monday’s surprising loss in Chicago absorbed by Motte, the vast majority of fans that expressed opinions were supportive of him, sending tweets of encouragement. After all, the closer has built up considerable goodwill given his and his team’s 2011 finish.

Following the loss, Motte made a single, somewhat generic, tweet:

“Whatever it is…it’s not outside Gods control. He may not get you out but He’ll get you through. #blessed”

The best closers are known for being able to quickly erase the result of the previous game. Yet the dozens of fan comments throughout the day on Tuesday encouraging Motte prolonged the memory of Monday’s missed opportunity.

Of course, Motte could decide to just stay away from social media until the storm passes. But then why use it in the first place? To deploy only when times are good?

Another blown save or two in the next week and the current supportive climate would likely change. Then what?

Former Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin once had a Twitter account, too. He had regular conversations with the masses, but after some bumps in the road, the account was canceled. Fan discord wasn’t directly the explanation offered, but my suspicion was that it contributed.

Motte certainly isn’t the first to muff a save opportunity. Just the other day, Minnesota closer Matt Capps was repeatedly insulted by a “fan” on Twitter after blowing a save. Twins blogger “Jesse” wrote about it here, rightly pointing out the inappropriateness and cowardice of the “fan” in making the criticism personal while complimenting the player for his professionalism.

I certainly agree with that assessment, but I also have to wonder about creating the environment in the first place. How wise is it for athletes to be that accessible?

Let’s face it; no matter how much we sermonize, those who need the lessons the most will not heed them. The lunatic fringe will remain. The only question is at what frequency and intensity they will surface. So, why enable them?

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Back in November when the new collective bargaining agreement between players and owners was announced, a miscellaneous line item simply said this:

“All Players will be subject to a policy governing the use of Social Media.”

Like most of the new CBA, the details governing use of Twitter and Facebook would follow. Earlier this week, MLB released their policy to all 40-man roster players.

The opening statement seems simple enough, but of course, the devil is in the details.

“We encourage you to connect with fans through Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. Along with MLB’s extensive social media activities, we hope your efforts on social media will bring fans closer to the game and have them engaged with baseball, your club and you in a meaningful way.”

Among the policy elements are these common sense-type items.

Players cannot post anything:

• That condones the use of drugs banned by MLB.
• Sexually explicit, racist or sexist.
• Disparaging one’s national origin or disability.
• Illegal by federal or state law.
• That threatens or harasses others.

The challenge will be in who and how violations will be interpreted. Club and MLB officials will be even more busy than before monitoring their employees’ social media behavior. Will union officials immediately spring to the defense of players when the inevitable gray areas are entered?

Any appeal process is unclear, but it will certainly be needed – if there are penalties involved in policy violations. This is not spelled out as far as I can tell. MLB already seems to keep a stable of arbiters busy in other elements of their business. Could this become another?

Apparently to protect the owners, this item is also included.

• Players must have permission before making statements that could be interpreted as “official,” linking to a MLB website, or using copyrighted team logos, names, photos or other material.

It seems odd for players not to be able to link to stories on the official MLB website.

It sort of reminds me of the ever-present warning repeated during every radio and television game for decades now. It is one we can probably all recite by heart, sort of like a perverted MLB pledge of allegiance.

“Any rebroadcast, reproduction or other use of this game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball is strictly prohibited.”

Anyway, back to social media. The items that govern on-field activities are crystal clear in comparison to sex, drugs and harassment. These apply to all officials, including coaches and managers.

They are not allowed to post to social media:

• 30 minutes before a game
• During a game
• Until at least 10 minutes after a game ends

They are also not allowed to question umpires’ calls via social media.

In summary, it is good that MLB accepts reality and encourages players to use social media to interact with fans. Players will continue to have to be smart in their actions to remain clear of the new regulations. For most, that should not be a problem. It is the few outliers for which MLB had to create this policy and about whom they must worry.

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“I really and truly believe that my time has come and gone, that the dynamics of the business, of what it takes to be involved in the business with all the tweeting and the blogging and that stuff, with an audience with a different taste … I’m not comfortable — it’s not me any more,” Ryan said.

I don’t know Ryan, having only read his work occasionally and seen him from time to time on television. At the age of 65, he certainly deserves the chance to enjoy his later years as he so chooses. However, Ryan provides another reminder that some elements of the new media world are not being embraced by all.

Speaking of new media, this week the Memphis Redbirds announced a new campaign, the likes of which I have never seen before. They are basically using follows on Twitter as an inducement to come to the ballpark.

While there are other elements to the April 26 Social Media Night promotion, this one really caught my eye. The first 500 fans to provide their Twitter handle to the Redbirds as they enter AutoZone Park that day will be followed by the team’s Twitter account.

I have seen countless inducements from businesses to encourage individuals to “Like” them via Facebook, but bartering follows on Twitter take the game to a whole new level.

For example, in a more traditional offer, the Cardinals Class-A affiliate, the Quad Cities River Bandits just awarded four tickets to the Midwest League club’s Opening Day to the 5,000^th Facebook user to “Like” them.

Not unlike the number of Facebook “friends,” having a large follower count on Twitter is a status symbol to many people. Further, being followed by those considered to be important is considered important to them, if you get my drift.

I guess I might be more like Ryan than I would like to admit in some ways, as I look at the world a bit differently.

On Facebook, I have no problem “liking” a business, but I handle personal interaction differently. The only people I “friend” are individuals I actually know, as in have a real relationship of some kind. I realize my definition of the term is old-school, but I just don’t get putting my implicit friendship stamp of approval on a complete stranger. Further, why in the world would I want to sort through mounds of Facebook chit-chat among anonymous people? It is bad enough reading what comes from those I actually know – and they probably feel the same way about me!

With even higher volumes of instant commentary, Twitter could be even worse.

Some people expect that if they follow someone, that person is obliged to follow them back. I am sorry, but if you consistently tweet content worth reading, I will follow you. Otherwise, you just generate noise – the likes of which I strive to cut out.

Again, there is the status symbol effect. I see many – even national media figures at times – literally twitter-begging for more followers. Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if they earned that support by providing value to the reader?

Plenty of Cardinals-related news providers are doing just that as reporters from MLB.com, the Post-Dispatch, FOX Sports Midwest and many, many more entities are already providing instantaneous updates from spring training camp in Jupiter, Fla.

I do mean instantaneous. Consider this example from Cardinals Winter Warm-Up last month in St. Louis. As players spoke with the media, I watched as several writers standing among us were feverishly tweeting key player comments as soon as they had been spoken.

That brings me to athletes and their use of social media. On the positive side, it enables them to take their message directly to the masses. It can also pull them too close to the flame if they are not careful.

After embarrassing episodes, some colleges have banned their athletes from tweeting, especially during the season. MLB educates players about the potential pitfalls of social media each spring and so on. (Edit: In fact, the summary of the new labor agreement between MLB players and owners specifically says, “All Players will be subject to a policy governing the use of Social Media.” Details are TBD.)

Still, at least 10 of the Cardinals players on the 40-man roster are on Twitter along with well over 50 minor leaguers across the system. Though I typically don’t befriend them on Facebook, I do follow them all on Twitter.

Like most tweets from individuals, the vast amount of them are uninteresting to non-acquaintances. Just as with any cross-section of young men, some tweets are funny, some are strange and others are probably inside jokes among friends.

Looking to increase fan interest, some players are actively campaigning to increase their follower count. Always competitive, they compare their numbers with their peers as they apparently equate the quantity of followers to popularity. I’ve even encountered player agents very in tune with this subject.

Now and then, interesting and useful information is offered, which is why I participate. For example, last summer, Cardinals top prospect Shelby Miller was the first to disclose his promotion to Double-A Springfield – via his Twitter feed.

Especially in terms of information delivery, social media in sports as well as the role of the sports media itself will continue to evolve. Past participants will need to do the same or be left behind.

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As you might imagine, the list has grown substantially, to the point it currently numbers 55 players. At least these are the ones of which I am aware. (Feel free to check back, as I am sure to be reminded of several that I inadvertently forgot and informed of others.)

A number of the players are anxious to gain more followers, so if you are interested, their names and ids follow. Several others are just the opposite, protecting their tweets, so don’t be offended if they don’t respond to your follow request. Some are far less active tweeting than others, so you’ll have to decide what is best for you.

I can’t guarantee your baseball IQ will increase substantially as a result, as this group is like any other cross section of individuals on Twitter. Some content is interesting, some is typical banter between friends and certain tweets are frankly a bit off the wall.

Yet, within the last two days, the excitement of players such as Tyrell Jenkins, Joe Kelly and Nick Greenwood radiated through their tweets as they announced receiving invitations to major league spring training camp and accepted congratulations from others.

The players are organized below by the level at which they ended the 2011 regular season. The active links for many of the names will take you to their stats pages at Baseball-Reference.com.

Remember the roster matrix: Exclusively here at The Cardinal Nation Blog, you can view every player in the entire Cardinals system by level and position, kept current all year long. Click here or you can always access current as well as past matrices from the “Players/Staff” > “Depth Charts/Roster Matrix” dropdown on the menu bar at the top of this page.

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When following a hashtag associated with a sports team such as #stlcards for the St. Louis Cardinals, the level of activity during a game is very high. Recently, I came across a website, SocialGuide.com, that tracks social comments relating to television programs.

Last week’s results (October 3-9) in the Sports category indicate a strong showing for Major League Baseball. Behind the number one event, the NFL game between the Jets and Patriots, were the MLB Division Series Game 5’s, with the Tigers-Yankees second and the Cardinals-Phillies third.

Almost 125,000 comments were logged during the Cardinals game by over 67,000 unique individuals. The other three NLDS games during the period ranked 15^th, 16^th and 19^th in the top 100, tracked across college and professional sports televised events.

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Earlier this season, we first learned of the promotion of St. Louis Cardinals number one prospect Shelby Miller from Palm Beach to Springfield via a tweet from the player himself.

The trend continues as Tuesday night, Joe Kelly received congratulations from other players in the organization for his yet-to-be announced move up to Springfield from Palm Beach.

As more and more players join Twitter, you may be interested in following them, too. Here is a list of Cardinals major and minor leaguers, though likely far from complete. Their Twitter handles are listed first. The active links for many of the player names will take you to their stats page at Baseball-Reference.com.

St. Louis
DanielDescalso – Daniel Descalso
dfreese23 – David Freese
ESanchez52 – Eduardo Sanchez
jonjayU – Jon Jay
mattholliday7 – Matt Holliday

Memphis
kingchambers_8 – Adron Chambers
PJWalters33 – P.J. Walters

Springfield
ShelbyMiller19 – Shelby Miller
Ngreeny23 – Nick Greenwood
cswag8 – Chris Swauger
JermaineCurtis – Jermaine Curtis
MCReid42 – Chase Reid

Palm Beach
jkell005 – Joe Kelly
philipthebases – Phil Cerreto
Xavier_Scruggs – Xavier Scruggs
AlanAhmady – Alan Ahmady
sneakpeekatneek – Niko Vasquez
JordanSwagerty – Jordan Swagerty
Tyler_Lyons – Tyler Lyons
jesseLsimpson – Jesse Simpson

Quad Cities
codystanley21 – Cody Stanley
dannybibona – Daniel Bibona

Batavia
PlayPatt_22 – Jeremy Patton
Gwittels10 – Garrett Wittels
DannyMiranda40 – Danny Miranda
DrewBenes – Drew Benes
NickMartini26 – Nick Martini
Maness_43 – Seth Maness

Johnson City
s_ramos9 – Steven Ramos
TyrellJenkins14 – Tyrell Jenkins
DWashington52 – David Washington

Gulf Coast League
@theCordDodd_ – Corderious Dodd

On military duty
Cardinals15 – Mitchell Harris

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Just this past weekend, an excited Shelby Miller used Twitter to declare to the world his promotion to Double-A Springfield. The word was not unexpected, though its timing had been unknown – until Saturday morning, that is.

Within minutes, the news that the Cardinals top prospect was on the move was quickly amplified, not just across Twitter, but it also quickly spilled into the mainstream news channels as well.

While the announcement elicited excitement from most every corner, there may have been a few exceptions. For example, it eliminated the rumor reporting element of “who knew first” emphasized by some in the media.

Further, consider the players already on the Springfield roster and especially the pitchers that were currently starting at Double-A.

They almost had to have been wondering what possible ramifications Miller’s impending arrival would have on them. Will someone be promoted, or worse, demoted? Will somebody be given his release? Who will be taken out of the rotation to make room?

Ideally, organizations would prefer to control the release of all information, but keeping all the fingers in that dike is becoming a greater and greater challenge by the day.

The reality is that social media is clearly not going away. In fact, it should continue to grow in importance for instant dissemination of information, whether or not all the “I”s have been dotted and the “T”s crossed first.

Though Miller’s promotion and its associated roster moves at both Springfield and Palm Beach have not yet been formally announced – after all, he isn’t starting in Springfield until Friday – we have all known the big news for days now…

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Even if you did not enter, you can still rub elbows with blingboy, his guest and the other attendees at the St. Louis Cardinals’ first 2011 Social Media Night. Special $20 event tickets are on sale for the event, to be held Tuesday evening, May 17 as the Cardinals entertain the Philadelphia Phillies at Busch Stadium. The single price includes a Lower Left Field Box seat for the game, a special pre-game social hour and event t-shirt.

Here are the details about the Cardinals 2011 Social Media Night:

• Tickets are now on sale
• Date of Event: Tuesday, May 17 vs. Phillies
• $20 price includes the following:

- Field Box ticket to the game
- “Tweet Me In St. Louis” T-Shirt
- Access to a Pre-Game Social Hour

• Pre-Game Social Hour

- 6 PM – 7 PM in the Group Sales Corner (located across from the Champions Club entrance)
- Chance to “Tweet Up” with your Twitter followers and Facebook friends
- Drinks will be available for purchase

Congratulations to blingboy and the other contest entrants and look for the second part of “Deep Time Baseball Venues in St. Louis” in the future.

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The Cardinal Nation Blog will be giving away two of these special tickets for free. Here is how you can win.

Submit an article about any Cardinals-related topic, past or present, major or minor league-focused. The best articles will be published here on the blog and the winner will be awarded the tickets. That is all there is to it!

All submissions need to be emailed to me at brian at thecardinalnationblog.com no later than Wednesday, May 4. The winner will be announced on Saturday, May 7.

The sooner your article is submitted, the better chance it will have to be seen. I will be the final decision-maker on the winner, but reader input will also be taken into consideration.

Don’t forget to include your Facebook address and Twitter id so they can be publicized as well. What a great way to make new Cardinals friends and acquire new followers!

Even if you don’t live in the St. Louis area or cannot attend the May 17 game, you can still submit your article and have a chance to win. A free three-month subscription to TheCardinalNation.com will be offered as an alternative to the first-place winner – if the entrant requests this at the time of article submission. In that case, we will have two winners, as the tickets will be awarded to another entrant able to attend the game.

Here are the details for the Cardinals 2011 Social Media Night:

• Tickets are now on sale
• Date of Event: Tuesday, May 17 vs. Phillies
• $20 price includes the following:

- Field Box ticket to the game
- “Tweet Me In St. Louis” T-Shirt
- Access to a Pre-Game Social Hour

• Pre-Game Social Hour

- 6 PM – 7 PM in the Group Sales Corner (located across from the Champions Club entrance)
- Chance to “Tweet Up” with your Twitter followers and Facebook friends
- Drinks will be available for purchase

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I do my best to restrict my Twitter usage to imparting information, either about breaking news or to draw attention to a new blog post or article of interest to St. Louis Cardinals fans or in commenting about another’s similarly-oriented tweet.

The concept of having armies of “followers,” other Twitter users subscribing to one’s tweets, is sort of a badge of merit for some. The most popular Twitter personalities have tens of thousands, while others like me have far more modest totals numbered only in the hundreds.

Given that, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I am ranked in the 300-400 range in the “Top 1,000 Sports Bloggers on Twitter List,” as compiled by BallHyped.com.

In case readers hadn’t noticed, there are areas both on this blog (left side of the home page) and at TheCardinalNation.com message board (at the top of the main forum) where my most recent tweets are listed. They are good places to check for new information, while detailed follow-up stories will follow for the significant items.

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Having been later than some to join the Twitter game, I recently shared my first-month thoughts about the hot social networking tool, both pros and cons. Now, I am going to take the next step to call out the identities of those I recommend St. Louis Cardinals fans who participate in Twitter should consider following.

As spring training officially begins, the amount of information being tweeted and re-tweeted is increasing considerably. Unfortunately, also growing is the level of noise.

Beyond being told what music is in their iPods and what they had for breakfast, perhaps my biggest pet peeve when following a baseball-related tweeter is the “yes-men” who re-tweet everything the beat reporters say, as if everyone who might possibly be interested doesn’t already follow the original source. (This is worse if you decide to monitor the team-related hashtags. See below.)

Filtering out the inevitable noise can best be attempted by carefully selecting those who you follow on Twitter and occasionally weeding out those who don’t give you what you want. That simple thought led me to adopt an idea I saw a Mets blogger undertake recently – to summarize the various team-oriented individuals pumping good stuff out into the Twitterverse.

Across all my personal interest levels, I have carefully selected 150 I currently follow, but will identify here the subset of 30 or so I think are most relevant to the masses of Cardinals fans. Some make sense for major league news only while others are obviously minor league-focused.

I probably won’t remember everyone and apologize in advance if I inadvertently left you or your favorite information provider off the list. If there are some notables you like that I have forgotten, please feel free to call them out below.

I won’t add explanation unless I think it is necessary to clarify the source. I am also not going to comment much on who tweets what outside of baseball as you can decide for yourself what interests you beyond Cardinals news and what does not, but all that follow offer ample Cardinals-related content.

Remember, if you decide after the fact that following someone isn’t working out, you can easily and immediately unfollow them. I did it with Jose Canseco most recently when he went off on a profane tirade. It was clearly the right decision for both of us.

To go to the Twitter home page of any of these to check out their recent tweets and perhaps follow them, you can either click on their names below or simply enter “twitter.com/xxxxxx” in your browser, where xxxxxx is any name listed. (Note that the capitals do not matter, but the underlines _ clearly do, such as with my account, B_Walton. Anywhere you see what appears to be a space in the linked names below, an underline _ is actually there.)

Post-Dispatch: stl_cardinals, JoeStrauss, dgoold, miklasz

Globe-Democrat: STLGlobeSPORTS, BJRains, RobRains

MLB.com: stlcardinals, MatthewHLeach

AP: rbfallstromAP

Rightsholder broadcast media: Fox_Sports_MW, JohnMarecek (KTRS radio), CardsNationShow (Channel 5)

The Cardinal Nation: ScoutStLouisMLB, B_Walton, Dustin_Mattison, jrocke217 (Josh Jones), stkerrick

A few of the Cardinals players partake, but I would imagine they are learning that its two-way operation can become a challenge. The latter two often use Twitter to share religious-themed messages.

Players: mattholliday7, MattPagnozzi, BlakeHawksworth

Cardinals team: MLBSTLCardinals (official team account), TonyLaRussa, jluhnow

Minor league affiliates: memphisredbirds, Sgf_Cardinals, RDSLetsPlay (Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter, FL) QCRiverBandits

Blogs: C70, thebirdos, Future_Redbirds, PitchersHit8th, Fungoes

Of course, there are literally hundreds of national writers and sites that also tweet occasionally about the Cardinals, but my focus here has been the handful of team-oriented ones with which I suggest you consider when getting started.

Cardinals-related hashtags

Hashtags are keywords included in tweets, identified by a hash sign (#) preceding them. The advantage for the reader is to be able to search on and/or regularly follow a topic area based on its hashtag, rather than by individual tweeters.

The two hashtags that I both use and follow regularly are #stlcards and #hpgf. The first is self-explanatory. Its major downside is the volume of unwashed masses participating. Think of it as sort of the Twitter version of the Cards Talk message board, so be prepared to sort through considerably more chaff than wheat.

#hpgf is short for “hyperventilating prospect geek fraternity,” a term first coined by the Post-Dispatch’s Joe Strauss to poke fun at what he considers to be an overzealous subset of Cardinals minor league watchers. The #hpgf hashtag caught on as a quick way to summarize “Cardinals minor league prospect information” into just five characters, saving more of the 140-character maximum per tweet for content.

A final thought

Like anything else, Twitter can become a huge time burner or less politely, a major time waster. My recommendation is to start slowly with sources you think you know you want to follow and gradually work your way into it. If you have to step away from Twitter for a few hours or days, let the tweets go that appeared while you were gone. There will soon be plenty more where they came from.

Good luck and good tweeting, Cardinals fans!

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The New York Times celebrated the new decade with a thought-provoking article by David Carr entitled, “Why Twitter will endure”. I suggest readers branch off and read it before returning, as from here, I will assume you have a base level of knowledge about the phenomenon. As a relatively-recent entrant into this instant-messaging craze, I have been mentally collecting my Twitter-related experiences as they relate to following baseball. Carr’s article offers me the context to share them.

This past spring, I recall a veteran baseball writer poking fun at early adopters with the catchy retort, “Only twits Twitter.” The next time I saw him, he had surprisingly not only become a twit, or more accurately a “tweeter”, but was a frequent user. His explanation: “My boss told me I had to use it.” Apparently, it grew on him.

My delayed decision to finally join the Twitterverse was a personal call based solely on audience reach. More and more readers are looking for better ways to mine information faster and in a less cumbersome manner than via RSS feeds, emails or web browsing, as Carr notes.

Yet there is the real risk of being drowned in Twitter-driven minutiae. While Carr pokes fun at the concern, it is real. Something I first learned with Facebook and was reinforced with Twitter is the need to be selective in whom you follow.

Some nationally-known experts have multiple Twitter accounts, enabling them to separate business from pleasure. This is the ideal approach, in my opinion. For example, Joe Blow might specialize in reporting baseball transactions. Done right, Joe would post his baseball news via his transactions account and restrict the news of what new tattoo he is considering, what recipes he is testing and his music CD choices of the year to his personal account.

Sadly, that clean and clear division between personal and work life isn’t always drawn, nor do I think many of the tweeters want that. I find the worst to be when an individual tweets the same information from multiple accounts.

For some, Twitter offers an opportunity to show off multiple dimensions of their personality and build a cult of followers. Frankly, I’d just rather read about transactions, not how much Joe Blow spent at the liquor store prior to New Year’s Eve (like the others, an actual example).

My favorite first-month tweets include a national baseball media figure, tweeting via his iPhone from an interstate highway, complaining about other drivers not paying attention to the road. Another horsehide-focused writer tweeted, “My cabdriver just cut off a horse.” I didn’t know for sure if he was living out “The Godfather” or simply visiting Central Park. Either way, I didn’t give a damn.

One key measure of Twitter credibility is the number of followers you have – those who are willing and ready to read your every thought. In a way, it is a pyramid, in that those who got in early generally have more followers.

Some of the later arrivals have resorted to cheesy gimmicks to try to attract readers. One example of a “follow me” plea is to offer registration in a prize drawing for those who re-tweet, or recopy, their fishing attempt for new followers. The downside is that the followers who had already subscribed receive multiple copies of the same content-free tweets over and over and over.

My solution for the above was to unfollow the offender despite being interested in his work. Maybe I will re-follow once his ego is adequately stroked. Maybe not. For others, it is not so easy. Some use their Twitter account for a mixture of purposes, some useful and some not.

MLB is one of the worst offenders, with numerous daily tweets leading up to the Holidays touting sales at the Official MLB.com Shop interspersed with actual news of potential interest. Of course, that is likely their intent. If they had an MLB Shop Twitter feed exclusively focused on their wares, no one in their right mind would follow. After all, how many Derek Jeter bobbleheads does one person need?

Another common abuse of Twitter is the multi-tweet message. Architecturally limited to 140 characters per tweet, some bypass the restriction by posting a string of inter-related tweets one after another to tell a short story instead of just making a single blog post and calling attention to it once via a link. I am pretty sure I am not alone in considering it bad form to be labeled as a serial tweeter.

Twitter allows private messaging between two individuals, yet many purposely publicly tweet to others who are a part of their “fraternity” no matter how obscure the discussion appears to the vast majority of their followers watching. If you have to ask, you obviously have no need to know…

Who replies to your tweets indicates to all who knows and likely respects you, a major cred point. I watch amusedly while some aspiring figures assume the “yes man” position in response to seemingly whatever the big boys post.

Another edge to that sword is that literally anyone can respond publicly to anyone else, meaning normally inaccessible figures can be engaged by the masses. Its ugly side surfaced when several national writers cast controversial ballots that may have affected the outcome of a high-profile baseball award. The unwashed tweeters descended upon the writers, driving at least one to turn around and publicly ridicule his disagreeing followers for their grammatical and spelling errors.

As the New Year arrived, tweets from celebrities and wannabees alike thanking their “tweeps” for following them were commonplace. Perhaps I am just a curmudgeon, but I am not anyone’s “tweep”.

Don’t get me wrong. Despite the number of negative keystrokes invested so far, I agree with Carr’s basic premise that Twitter is here to stay.

Fortunately, many have figured it out, including Carr. “…after a while, I realized that I was not Moses and neither Twitter nor its users were wondering what I thought. Nearly a year in, I’ve come to understand that the real value of the service is listening to a wired collective voice,” Carr wrote.

While some baseball news provided is old and rehashed, Baseball’s Winter Meetings offered a great illustration of the power of the medium. It was a tremendous opportunity to reap many of the benefits of being there without having to travel to snowy Indianapolis in the midst of the winter. Sportswriters and even agents and club personnel at times were sharing news on an instant basis to anyone and everyone connected.

New rumors are quickly dispersed via Twitter and in some cases, almost as quickly debunked by others with better information and more in the know about the subject at hand. Normally, mainstream writers are careful not to openly disagree with peers, but Twitter has helped to expose multiple perspectives not always visible before.

Twitter also seems to be changing the misinformation game so successfully played in past years by high-profile player agents. They carefully plant rumors with media friends about supposed “mystery bidders” to spook nervous general managers into bidding against themselves for free agents. One example concerning Matt Holliday last week had a shelf life measured in minutes thanks in part to informed Twitter responses that quickly took apart the very questionable rumor.

After the Winter Meetings, I read an article written by a principal from a traditional baseball news site lamenting the instant nature of Twitter. As I thought about it, the expression of that concern seemed only logical. After all, this may yet be another example where the middleman fears losing relevance if unwilling or unable to adapt to change.

Like clockwork, within a few minutes of national writers tweeting a news item, at least a couple of baseball rumor-related sites will echo the content. Still, because it isn’t very practical for the reader to track every writer from every news source, following these national sites can quickly deliver tidbits that may be fresh to one’s eyes.

One helpful vehicle that can be used to try to make order from the potential chaos is to group those you follow into categories, called lists. For example, I have separate lists for national writers, NL Central Division, Cardinals, minor league and fantasy baseball. Each person and site I follow is placed into one of the lists.

I use a freeware offering called TweetDeck to display the lists side-by-side on a single screen when using my laptop. New tweets pop up in one corner of my screen automatically while I am doing other work, keeping me from having to return to my Twitter home page repeatedly. This is a major improvement over the sequential presentation of basic Twitter.

As you might expect, there are literally dozens of Twitter apps for whatever your platform and need. The possibilities seem almost endless with new ones popping up every week.

Like Carr says, “Twitter will endure.” You may as well engage. Just do it with your wits about you.

Oh yeah, follow me on Twitter.