Here we go…

Last season, David Price got into some hot water with Rays fans after tweeting this following a late September game:

“Had a chance to clinch a postseason spot tonight with about 10,000 fans in the stands…embarrassing.”

(Evan Longoria called that same crowd embarrassing in a post-game interview.)

Now, Longoria has a tweet of his own he might want to take back.

It started after Saturday’s game in Seattle, when Longoria (@Evan3Longoria) told the Twitterverse he was going out for a taste of the city.

Post was one of the stops on his agenda:

(Rays Index gives a general timeline of these tweets in this article.)

Tweeting about a glass of red wine from Oregon, or any alcoholic beverage, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting sloshed. I can honestly tell you the last few times I’ve tweeted a #beerstatus I have been in my house and that one beer I mentioned to the Twitterverse was the only beer I had.  You see, some people just like the taste of beer, or wine, or a mixed drink and don’t need to drink to the point of hammered, or even buzzed, every time they pick up a glass.

With that said, it’s so much more “fun” for the masses to assume that when an athlete goes out at night, they go ALL out. We make these men and women into a physically gifted version of a rockstar.  Their lives have to be so much more exciting than our own, right?  Sipping wine and noshing on appetizers doesn’t quite seem like the rockstar way.

It’s nice to imagine what it would be like to make millions of dollars playing a game you love, but I don’t think the money and the national stage automatically takes away every aspect of a “normal” life.

If I met an athlete out, I’d probably have a drink or two, but I’d be more interested in what I could glean from a conversation than how high I could raise my BAC.  Maybe I’m weird, or maybe that’s just because I’d rather be a reporter, or a genuine friend, than a groupie.  But no matter the reason, it’s the truth.

Using the Internet as a shield, it’s easy for some to feel safe enough to lash out at others.  I’ve gotten into some good debates through Twitter, but I think it’s wise, in Internet life and in real life, to avoid attacking others. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that I’m a five foot tall female…

But everyone doesn’t have that same philosophy.  Evan was mentioned in an angry tweet and he responded to it:

YDYJIDM means “You do your job, I’ll do mine.”

Here’s the deal when it comes to Twitter, whether you are an athlete, an actor, or an average Joe or Jane: To entirely avoid the daggers that come in 140 characters or less, you have one option and that option is to leave Twitter.

For the famous, those daggers fly a little more frequently.  It would be a shame to see athletes and celebrities pack up their Twitter handles and go just to avoid the percentage of followers who never got, or never listened to, the “if you don’t have anything nice to say” speech as a child.

Twitter gives the fans a chance to interact with their heroes or just learn a little bit more about their personal life.  After the drama that unfolded between Saturday night and Sunday morning, Longoria kept things decidedly light-hearted on Monday.

The following comment accompanied the Rays Index article about Longo’s late-night tweets, and it restored some of my faith in folks.  A Rays fan named Rob was in Seattle that Saturday night and had this to say about Longoria:

I feel like the impression he gives about being a late night partier may be true at some points of the year. Saturday night was not one of them. He was by himself drinking his wine looking like he was trying to unwind and get out of his own mind where he spends a lot of time thinking about his career low numbers. I didn’t see him after 9:30 after he left that bar, by himself, after generously signing an autograph for this stalking fan. He may have went somewhere else, downed 8 shots of jaeger, rode the mechanical bull, and went home with three blondes. My guess would have been he continued to be out simply enjoying a beautiful summer night in Seattle and trying to get some perspective on his season at the plate.

Evan’s struggling this season, but I think there’s more to it than a glass of wine and some late nights out.  From what I’ve heard, staying up until closing time as a 20-something isn’t considered an extreme lifestyle choice.

And here’s some breaking news: tweeting your displeasure toward a struggling player isn’t the fix for his on-field woes.