Brandon Philips: Fan Interaction Via Twitter
Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have connected people more intimately than ever before. Not surprisingly, many athletes have taken to Twitter as a means to communicate with fans and create online entourages. While a lot of these athletes are gracious with their time, answering questions and providing inside looks at their lives, Brandon Phillips has repeatedly gone above and beyond. In a time when most off the field/court stories are negative, it's nice to see some cool stories involving a professional player and his fans.
Last month, an 8th grader tweeted that Phillips should check out his U-14 baseball game. Phillips happened to be eating at a nearby Cincinnati restaurant. Not having a game that night, Phillips showed up to the kid's game, met the team, and signed autographs. What an exciting moment for the kid. I thought it was a pretty cool gesture. Then today, I was watching the game of the week on Fox, and they were showing bonus coverage of the Reds/Giants game. The announcers noted that Phillips challenged his Twitter followers to guess his high school football number. The two fans that guessed correctly were flown to San Francisco, on the ball player's dime, for the entire four game set with the Giants. Phillips even hung out with them part of the day yesterday.
Every mis-step of professional athletes are well documented and covered by the media. It's refreshing to see someone using advanced technology like Twitter for something so engaging and endearing to fans.
Last month, an 8th grader tweeted that Phillips should check out his U-14 baseball game. Phillips happened to be eating at a nearby Cincinnati restaurant. Not having a game that night, Phillips showed up to the kid's game, met the team, and signed autographs. What an exciting moment for the kid. I thought it was a pretty cool gesture. Then today, I was watching the game of the week on Fox, and they were showing bonus coverage of the Reds/Giants game. The announcers noted that Phillips challenged his Twitter followers to guess his high school football number. The two fans that guessed correctly were flown to San Francisco, on the ball player's dime, for the entire four game set with the Giants. Phillips even hung out with them part of the day yesterday.
Every mis-step of professional athletes are well documented and covered by the media. It's refreshing to see someone using advanced technology like Twitter for something so engaging and endearing to fans.
Very cool... A lot of casual fans from outside of Cincinnati look at Phillips and think, 'arrogant and egotistical' but people in Cincinnati and his teammates often paint a very different picture. He is a competitor and he is not afraid to speak what's on his mind but I think that baseball needs more players like Brandon Phillips... He is real, he loves the game, he plays hard, he appreciates his fans and he is one heck of a ballplayer. If you're reading this... Big ups to you, Brandon!
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