Minnesota Twins: Bert Blyleven Riles Up Detroit
Jun 14, 2013; Minneapolis, MN, USA; (left to right) Bert Blyleven, Eddie Guardado and Brad Radke take a look at Eddie Guardado
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In case you have been ignoring the Minnesota Twins – which would be hard to blame you for with how poorly they played the opening series – Bert Blyleven got himself into some hot water with the residents of Detroit yesterday. There was a rain delay before the start of the Twins game against the Tigers yesterday. That meant the television crew over at Fox Sports North had some time to kill before the game started. Blyleven used the time to take a jab at the city of Detroit via his Twitter page. Per Mike Itchue’s story from the Detroit Free Press:
"“It is the best I have seen downtown Detroit though! Thank you low clouds!” Blyleven tweeted to his followers along with an image of rain clouds blocking the city skyline view beyond the outfield at Comerica Park while waiting out the delay."
Blyleven would first double down on this tweet, then delete both and issue an apology. My question is, what for?
There is no place where it states Blyleven or anyone else has to like Detroit or any other city. It was a joke. If some of the citizens of Detroit choose to dislike Blyleven because of his comments, that is their prerogative. That does not mean that Blyleven is not entitled to his opinion though, or that he does not have the right to share that opinion.
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That does not mean people are free to say whatever they want without recourse. The freedom of speech does not come with the freedom from consequence. Numerous racists, bigots, sexists and all other manner of creeps have been throwing around the First Amendment to attempt to absolve themselves from the consequences of their own hateful words for centuries.
This was a joke though, and a fairly inoffensive one at that. We live in a world of internet think pieces that is getting more humorless by the day. Everyone should take themselves seriously and expect respect from others.
Everyone should also be capable of taking a joke.