New Dodgers Trevor Bauer’s behavior on social media explained

Following his record drawing with the Dodgers this week, Trevor Bauer’s behavior on social media has been re-examined, forcing the reigning National League Cy Young Award-winning pitcher to account for incidents in which he was accused of harassing women , spreading conspiracy theories and using insensitive language.

“Everyone makes mistakes in the past,” Bauer said Thursday at his introductory press conference at Dodger Stadium, where his history on social media was the subject of several questions. “I try to learn from them as quickly as possible. I try to understand other people’s opinions of things and get better in the future. “

Here’s an explanation of some of the Twitter exchanges that have been questioned:

Alleged harassment of women by Bauer and his followers:

There have been two high-profile incidents where women accused Bauer and his hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers of harassing them on the platform.

The first took place in January 2019, when Bauer and a Texas State University student entered an exchange that began with the student calling the pitcher her “new least favorite person in all sports” after talking about Astros infielder on Twitter. Alex Bregman, one of her favorite players.

Initially, Bauer and the student shot each other, noting, for example, that he hadn’t won a World Series, and that he was digging up an old tweet of her drinking for her 21st birthday. In the following days, Bauer continued to tag her in tweets even after she slowly stopped responding to him.

The student later told USA Today that while Bauer continued to tag her, many of his followers piled up with snide comments against her.

“I cried daily and called my family to cry because I got a lot of hate for the first 12-24 hours,” she said at the time, adding, “When I said I felt harassed, he kept tweeting things like this claiming that I responded to him because “I like him.” ”

Bauer later acknowledged in a tweet that “some of the interactions related to a specific Twitter exchange may have had a negative impact. That was not my intention. I will exercise the responsibility of my public platform in a more responsible manner in the future. “

He also said at the time that he did not encourage his fans to “attack, insult or harass anyone on a social media platform, or in real life. There is no room for that in the world. “

However, this past August, a similar incident occurred between Bauer, his followers and a reporter for the New York Daily News. It has started when she took a screenshot of one of Bauer’s tweets speaking of his behind-the-scenes video blog of last year’s pandemic-altered season, writing sneeringly, “If you’re absolutely concerned about the health and safety of your teammates.”

Bauer replied, “If you are absolutely not bad at your job or desperately want someone to notice you. Here, let me send some more followers your way. Good day!!”

That, the reporter said in a separate tweet last month, sparked a barrage of responses directed at her from Bauer’s Twitter followers, including “death threats and Holocaust jokes in my entries for months after he went after me.”

In response to that accusation, Bauer released a statement to the Athletic in which he said, “I don’t shy away from confrontation and often quickly defend myself, but I’m by no means a bully and I very much resent my character being called into question. I am. understand what goes into having followers on social media, but I have never asked for it and I am never good for anyone who makes threats or lewd comments on my behalf. ”

During his Dodgers press conference on Thursday, he did not specifically comment on his interactions with both women when asked directly.

Tweet regarding Obama’s conspiracy theory:

In February 2017, Bauer tweeted that he was “really annoyed” that Apple and Twitter “keep flooding my phone with liberal slanting anti-trump articles. Fair and equal reporting? No?”

When someone responded to him citing former President Trump’s so-called Muslim ban, Bauer responded with a clear reference to a baseless conspiracy theory about former President Obama’s birthplace, writing, “That same President who was supposedly not born in the US, did the same exact same prohibition. “

Tweet in response to a fake quote from George Soros:

A day after the 2016 presidential election, Bauer tweeted, “I certainly hope EVERY ONE. JUST. INDIVIDUAL. That’s part of a #TrumpProtest vote, because if you didn’t and you protest … oooooooo boy,” with two emojis with angry faces.

When someone responded to him with a bogus quote about the country falsely attributed to billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros – who was the target of other anti-Semitic conspiracy theories – Bauer seemingly outlined it as fact, writing, “Can the truth be so? don’t spread, because then you are a ‘racist’ or ‘conspiracy theorist’. ”

Tweet criticized as transphobic:

On the same day the incident with the Texas State University student began, Bauer got into conversation with another Twitter user in which he wrote in one tweet, seemingly in jest, “I identify as a 12-year-old. This is 2019. You must have empathy for me and my condition. “

That kind of language – Bauer had tweeted the phrase “I identify as 12-year-old” three times in the previous two months – was criticized for ridiculing transgender and nonbinary people. In a subsequent exchange, Bauer objected to such claims, writing: “[I’ve] never tweeted anything remotely transphobically. In fact, I have publicly expressed my support for the movement “and” Please tell me how that is a transphobic statement. Maybe I’m just missing something here … because I don’t get it. “

Defense of Cleveland Indians name:

During his fifth season with the Cleveland Indians in 2017, a fan tweeted to Bauer asking if he was “okay with all-race racist caricatures or just native Americans?” in clear reference to the team name and Chief Wahoo’s logo.

Bauer responded by writing that he “ had not yet met any Native American who thinks it is racist. Shut up.”

Of course, the Indians’ name had been protested for years by various Native American groups prior to Bauer’s tweet. In 2018, the team retired the Chief Wahoo logo. Last December, the organization announced that it would change its name from the 2021 season.