Over at Fangraphs this morning, contributor Dave Allen asked a very important question:
Good Players, Popular Twitter Accounts, And Asking The Wrong Question
Do good baseball players get more Twitter followers?
This being Fangraphs, Allen didn’t stop at the question. He went ahead and compiled all the necessary data and carried out a study so as to provide an answer. His answer? Yes, there is a weak but real relationship. Better players, like CC Sabathia and Jason Heyward, tend to have more followers, while worse players, like Brendan Harris and Dexter Fowler, tend to have fewer.
There are, of course, a number of variables at play. It isn’t just about player ability. It depends on track record. It depends on the team. It depends (heavily) on the level of Twitter activity. There’s a lot going on, and a simple study like Allen’s only scratches the surface. However, while this is all very interesting, I feel it also ignores the far bigger question:
Why does Nick Swisher have more followers than every other Major League Baseball player combined?
Nick Swisher’s Twitter account - as of right now - has 1,213,723 followers. In second place among players is CC Sabathia. Okay, that makes some sense. But wait. Sabathia’s follower count only reaches 50,299. That’s a difference of 1,163,424 followers, or roughly 23 times. Nick Swisher’s Twitter is 23 times more popular than the next-most-popular MLB player Twitter account.
I get why people like Nick Swisher. He’s a good player. He plays for New York. He’s very active in charity. He interacts a lot with his fans. He’s been on with David Letterman, he’s been on with Jimmy Fallon, and, among other things, he’s been in an episode of How I Met Your Mother. I have no problem understanding why Nick Swisher is popular. He’s a likable, personable guy.
But 75 times as many followers as Jason Heyward? Nick Swisher has nearly as many followers as Snoop Dogg. He has more followers than Conan O’Brien.
Nick Swisher is apparently a phenomenon. A phenomenon that’s added 50 more followers since I wrote that other paragraph a few minutes ago. Nick Swisher is a phenomenon, and I don’t get it. I suppose all I can do is follow him and see just what’s up.
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