MLB Reporter Sets Baseball Twitter on Fire With a Desire to Be First Instead of Right

Also in Traina Thoughts: Shaq goes flying into a Christmas tree; Chris Berman on NFL Primetime’s end; Marcus Spears is self-aware and much more.

1. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman is not the first reporter who has gotten burned by the insatiable desire to be first.

However, when you screw up on the biggest story of the offseason, the blowback coming your way is going to be intense.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Heyman tweeted that “Arson Judge” appeared to be headed to the Giants. A little while later, Heyman said he jumped the gun on Aaron Judge’s free-agency decision and apologized. Then Heyman, who must have been flustered beyond belief, deleted all his Judge tweets. Just a complete trainwreck all around.

I don’t know whether Heyman thought deleting the tweets would get the internet off his back, but when other reporters broke the news Wednesday morning that Judge was re-signing with the Yankees, Heyman’s credibility took a hit with many baseball fans and frustrated one Giants player.

Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody screws up at work once in a while. That’s life. But it’s the level of mistake, who makes the mistake and the reason for the mistake that’s important.

This was a bad one. A very bad one. The absurd typo combined with getting the story flat-out wrong all because you wanted to be first is embarrassing on many levels. Heyman could’ve been saved a teeny tiny bit if Judge ended up signing with the Giants, but once he returned to the Yankees, it sealed Heyman’s fate. Now, he’ll primarily be known for this debacle.

The Judge news came down at 8:30 this morning. I’m writing this at 10:30. I can’t remember who broke the news of his re-signing with the Yankees or which writer I saw tweet it first.

I understand writers want to be first because it may impress their bosses, but you can’t sacrifice accuracy in a huge story to be first.

Here’s what I found most telling about Heyman’s colossal f-up. When someone in the media is in the eye of the storm, there are always colleagues or ex-colleagues or other people who will throw out a sympathy tweet.

It’s usually a generic thing like, “We all make mistakes. So-and-so is a great reporter and hard worker.” Or “Rough day for so-and-so, but they are a pro and will bounce back from this.”

I saw none of that Tuesday with Heyman. Naturally, fans had a field day mocking him, but there was silence from other members of the media while Heyman took a social media pounding.

So, let’s talk about that social media reaction. It was A+. I don’t even know where to begin in highlighting some of the best reactions. I mean, people were calling for Heyman to be jailed, while other angry baseball fans turned to memes.

2. It was just another typical night on Inside the NBA on Tuesday.

KENNY LAUNCHED SHAQ INTO THE TREE 🎄💀 pic.twitter.com/WBltT8jflx

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) December 7, 2022

3. Browns rookie defensive back Tony Fields scored on a pick-six against the Texans last Sunday. He wanted to give the ball to his dad, who was in the stands, but things did not go smoothly.

4. Chris Berman has often talked about how angry and disappointed he was when NFL Primetime had to go away after NBC landed the Sunday Night Football contract and acquired the exclusive rights to air an NFL highlights show in that 7–8 p.m. time slot. Berman once again explained how upset he was at Primetime's demise in a new interview with Adam Schein. I love that Berman hasn’t let this go, because Primetime was and is the greatest highlight show of all time. And I still miss it being on ESPN (the network, not a streaming service) each Sunday.

5. Great stuff from ESPN’s Marcus Spears here on the power of the Cowboys on sports television.

6. This week’s SI Media Podcast features a conversation with the voice of Sunday Night Football on NBC, Mike Tirico.

Tirico, who took over the role from Al Michaels this year, talks about how closely he pays attention to NBC's flex scheduling options, what goes into flexing a game and the logistics of flexing. Tirico also shares how he watches games every Sunday, the difference between doing Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football, his stance on referencing point spreads and over/unders during games and much more.

Following Tirico, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins Jimmy for their weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, Jimmy talks about Jim Nantz’s mentioning his name during the Bills-Lions telecast on Thanksgiving, the sad state of Charles Barkley’s friendship with Michael Jordan, Spotify Unwrapped and more. 

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 66th birthday to NBA legend and trash-talker extraordinaire Larry Bird.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.