Medlen that is….

Can someone enlighten me? My work computers don’t like twitter.

If you don’t want to be the brunt of somebody’s joke — Comedy Channel, Letterman, or even Talking Chop — don’t do something stupid or embarrassing that puts your face into the news… other than sports segments. In the past two weeks, you’ve seen this with both Lowe and Blackjack.

Remember: you’re a public athlete. Like it or not, people are watching. Sorry about that, but that’s the rub when you excel at your craft enough to be up there with the best in the world.

Kind of a poor choice of words for Meds to talk about being drunk and Lowe in the same tweet.

Craig Calcaterra of HBT said:

“Careful Kris! Braves have gotten in trouble goin’ after fans lately! RT @KrisMedlen @gondeee fucking douchebag.”

He isn’t a douchebag but Martin is? I enjoy both of their work and think neither are a douchebag. But to get it straight, jokes about drunk driving make you a douchebag, but jokes about verbally attacking fans are good to go. Interesting world, eh?

I thought gondeee’s joke was funny, and he should stand by it. When Derek Lowe was caught allegedly racing down Peachtree after having too much to drink, he became fair game for DUI jokes. (See: every late night comedian joke about every public person getting caught doing something illegal.)

At the same time, Medlen is totally right to stick up for his boy D. Lowe. Innocent until proven guilty. He wouldn’t be the first person to be pulled over speeding and with the smell of alcohol, yet not be under the influence. It’s not illegal to have a couple beers and then drive. It’s illegal to have a couple of beers and then drive under the influence.

That said, I don’t think there’s any question that Medlen shouldn’t be lashing out at fans as “fucking douchebags.” But that’s a different issue. i suppose one could argue that gondeee, as the voice for a largely read Braves blog and with a press pass, has a different responsibility than the rest of us when it comes to making jokes.

Gondee picked the wrong time to make a joke about Lowe and have it sent to Meds. Meds used the wrong word choice, but at the same time Gondee deserved to get called out for taking a shot a Lowe. There are certain lines that you can cross, and while Gondee tried to justify his joke, I think he went a bit far.

he should have used a DM like DOB would.

This could be turned into the ultimate work, where Martin feuds with Medlen, Talking Chop gets enough hits to tank SBNation servers, while Kris becomes beloved on a cult-like status, and all parties win. All while the apology was accepted a long time ago, and they were in cahoots all along for this purpose.

Surely not

What if this resulted in a Medlen suspension?

is for this story to get blown out of proportion. I might be in our best interests to learn from this, yes, but also not make a very big thing of it. But hey. that’s just my opinion.

I usually have something intelligent to say but when it comes to twitter, all’s fair in love and cyberspace. It’s too easy to make trouble in the intrawebz

So it was all I could do not to reply to Medlen and say something about wanting the number for Gloria Allred. Of course I would never invite something like this, but the original joke (whether you think it was a joke or not) is right in line with many other things I’ve tweeted. For instance:

“I wonder if Derek Lowe is enjoying “bark in the park” day with some hair of the dog."
“D-Loweded story updated with official Braves statement”
""A Latino guy, an Asian guy, a black guy, and 3 white guys all walk into a bar"… complete this joke twitter…"

Clearly my mistake here was to reply to him with his @KrisMedlen in the tweet, which makes it appear as if I’m directing the response towards him, when I was actually just tweeting something I found to be hilarious (though clearly not everyone does), which piggybacked off something he said.

Just to clarify here, I do not have a press pass for the Braves. I’ve been trying like hell to cover them in person for the past two years, but MLB’s policy on bloggers covering teams is a big fat NO. I’m trying to convince the Braves otherwise, and I’m certain this incident will help in that regard …. . Even though my assertion is that the third-largest online site (behind AJC and Braves.com) for Braves news should be represented in some way at some games.

Anyway, I’m a Meds fan, and I apologized to him in a DM. I also told him that I know it’s been a rough time for you guys and the fans, and joking helps me get through it. Quite often my jokes are in very poor taste, yet still I persevere.

Well, this and about a dozen other reasons.

When athletes start communicating knowledge of their expertise through twitter, then maybe I’d be interested in following but when it comes to statements like Mendenhall’s, I could care less about reading what a non-expert’s opinion on politics or economics is. He’s welcome to have it and I won’t be offended by it but who gives a shit what someone without a professional background’s opinion is. The probability of him shedding some light is zero. I don’t understand why anyone cares.

He’s a Brave. Gondee may be the man when it comes to talking about the Braves. But Medlen IS a brave.. advantage=Meds. Pretty sure I’m not gonna dis a Brave.