MLB Insider: Limiting access wrong way to fix Twitter problem

The most enduring image of the trade deadline wasn’t seeing Cole Hamels in a Texas Rangers uniform for the first time, or Troy Tulowitzki and David Price setting foot in Toronto and immediately making the Blue Jays great.

It was of Wilmer Flores, the New York Mets second baseman who was brought to tears upon hearing the rumors that he had been traded to the Milwaukee Brewers.

The deal was scrapped, Flores’ tears were for naught, and media who reported that the trade was a done deal on social media — as well as social media itself — were thrown under the bus by Mets general manager Sandy Alderson.

All those tweets, which contained accurate information, got back to Flores and stirred the Citi Field crowd to begin bidding Flores a proper goodbye. That’s when the waterworks started. When the trade fell through, an embarrassing moment for a 23-year-old infielder wasn’t the Mets’ fault but the fault of reporters and social media.

Rangers GM Jon Daniels told Matt Harrison that he was in the Hamels deal well before MLB signed off on it, breaking stride from how he typically handles a trade, so that Harrison wouldn’t learn of it via social media.

Unlike Alderson, though, Daniels didn’t blame the media for doing their job.

Indeed, Twitter, the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle have become game-changers. Breaking: This didn’t just happen.

But a few baseball officials speculated, in the aftermath of the Wilmer Flores Incident, that the media’s job might be more difficult to do with less access when the next collective bargaining agreement takes effect in 2017.

Limiting media access to the clubhouse is, again, a possibility. That’s not the right solution to dealing with this perceived Twitter problem.

(The following isn’t about to turn into a whine fest. Baseball gives more access to media than any other sport. If the players association and commissioner’s office decide to cut that back even more, their games and teams will still be covered.)

The timing of this flap came two weeks after the Baseball Writers Association of America held its annual meeting at the All-Star Game, and was joined by commissioner Rob Manfred and players association executive director Tony Clark.

Having seen access dwindle through the years, including in the current CBA, one reporter asked Manfred and Clark how access will be addressed for the upcoming bargaining in 2016.

“This is probably the only point so far where I wish I didn’t have all these recorders on,” Manfred said.

He’s all for fans being able to access players, and media clubhouse access is one of the three main vehicles along with players engaging in social-media activities and on-field enhancements like microphones and cameras.

“I do understand that a key to giving our fans what they want is access to players,” Manfred said. “I’m a yes on all three of those. I think they’re really, really important to our game, to marketing the players, and it should be important to our players, too.”

Clark, who played from 1995 to 2009, knows that most media members aren’t there to invade the players’ personal space. There are exceptions who Clark said muddy the waters by trying to twist a sound bite or report on something that isn’t news.

“Players appreciate that everyone has a job to do,” Clark said. “Rest assured, any conversation we have will be tied to players knowing, understanding and respecting the fact that they need to be available. How that availability manifests itself, we’ll have to figure that out.”

Rather than cut the length of time the media spend in the clubhouse, Clark suggested that it might become the clubs’ responsibility to limit who gets in.

Players often don’t know who they’re talking to, between TV, radio and print outlets, and don’t always know whom they can trust.

Clubs are being proactive in limiting where and when social media can be used. Twitter is banned in clubhouses. That includes at Globe Life Park, where the Rangers also ban tweeting during most conference calls and the manager’s daily pregame briefing.

Still photographs, except of lineup cards, have always been banned in the clubhouse.

That’s fine. To be honest, it’s disrespectful of Daniels’ and manager Jeff Banister’s time to not pay full attention to them when they are talking.

So what’s the Twitter solution?

PR staffs and writers have different ideas of what is newsworthy and what is worthy of a tweet. That’s never going to change, and any attempts by clubs to dictate what is and isn’t news would be, well, an ill-advised control grab.

Then, there’s this: The Flores issue had absolutely nothing to do with clubhouse access.

Reporters were calling, texting and emailing front-office execs and scouts for information. If Alderson is ticked, he should be ticked at anyone in the Mets’ or Brewers’ front office who might have blabbed.

Twitter isn’t perfect. Its creators — Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass — have been cursed by many a journalist and still are. However, those in the business who are still anti-Twitter or anti-social media will be replaced by those who aren’t as soon as the lawyers figure out a way.

Those club executives who are still anti-social media need to adapt, too.

Because social media isn’t going anywhere. Breaking: The Internet isn’t a fad. Twitter and Facebook might be replaced by some new format, but the news cycle will be 24 hours forevermore.

The media aren’t going anywhere, either, but limiting the media’s access isn’t the solution to this perceived Twitter problem.

This story was originally published August 15, 2015 at 6:49 PM with the headline "MLB Insider: Limiting access wrong way to fix Twitter problem."