NEWSLETTER
Darren Rovell is a well-known business-of-sports reporter for ESPN and ABC News. He is, however, better known in new media quarters as something of a Twitter monolith – he even wrote the rules.
(So weighty is his Twitter presence, in fact, that he will be one of the signature participants at the Cubs’ annual Social Media Night on August 21 (it was a great event last year, and I’m sure it will be worth checking out once again this year)).
Today, Rovell tweeted out some thoughts on a matter of national interest, as he is wont to do:
The Cubs don't need more revenue to compete. They need to make smarter decisions.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 2, 2013
In the last 11 seasons, the avg World Series participant has been 12th in payroll. The Cubs have avg'd 8th in payroll over the last 11.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 2, 2013
His comments didn’t strike me as altogether fair or accurate. So I shared my thoughts in the manner the character limitations of a retweet would allow:
Simultaneously earth-shattering … and wrong. RT @darrenrovell Cubs don't need more revenue to compete. They need to make smarter decisions
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) May 2, 2013
To his credit, Rovell offered me the opportunity to explain, even if his response was probably terse:
@BleacherNation enlighten me then. go ahead.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 2, 2013
So I did.
@darrenrovell (1) To suggest there is no correlation between available payroll and playoff contention is facially absurd.
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) May 2, 2013
@darrenrovell (2) The playoffs are a crapshoot, so citing WS participants is necessarily skewed. Teams can control making playoffs, only.
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) May 2, 2013
@darrenrovell (3) Making "smarter decisions" … yeah. Of course. And it's easier to paper over the bad decisions with more money.
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) May 2, 2013
@darrenrovell (4) Every team makes bad decisions at times. The revenue helps keep a team in contention despite them.
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) May 2, 2013
@darrenrovell In the end, smarter decisions is always a good thing. So is more money available to spend.
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) May 2, 2013
@darrenrovell Hope that helps. Looking forward to seeing you at @Cubs Social Media Night in August.
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) May 2, 2013
The “hope that helps” was actually sincere – Twitter doesn’t make this kind of thing easy, and I hope Rovell really does consider those issues as they relate the Cubs’ efforts to secure more revenue (to, in turn, put toward the payroll). The process is important, and it isn’t easily dismissed in 140 characters. Having not yet received a response from Rovell, I’m going to toot my own horn and presume that he now considers himself enlightened.
You could call what Rovell does “trolling,” and he’s certainly looking for a reaction. And, since the Twitter space and form doesn’t lend itself to lengthy, nuanced conversations, it’s even easier to consider baiting sound bytes to be mere trolling. I’m not really sure that Rovell sinks to quite that level, and at least he does interact. Not everyone is a fan of how Rovell conducts himself on Twitter (Will Leitch recently put him on blast), but, for now, I remain agnostic.
What you can’t argue is that, if your measure of success is becoming a large and important part of an ecosystem, Rovell is very good at Twitter. Look at this example. He fired off a few tweets, interacted a little, and now we’re discussing him at length.
This concept could make for a very interesting discussion at Social Media Night.
Also, feel free to use this as a platform to discuss the substance of what Rovell said, and what I responded. My final tweet is pretty much the upshot for me: of course teams have to make smart decisions, and of course the teams that make the smartest decisions will do well. But having more money to play around with – especially when you make a few poor decisions, as all teams inevitably do – inarguably helps.
