ESPN reporter's perfect social media response to retired MLB player goes viral

Doug Mientkiewicz won a World Series ring as a reserve infielder with the Boston Red Sox in 2004, the highlight of a 12-year big league career spent with seven MLB teams.

A 2001 Gold Glove Award winner at first base with the Minnesota Twins, Mientkiewicz also played for the New York Mets, Kansas City Royals, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers before retiring in 2010.

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Since then, Mientkiewicz has bounced around baseball as a minor league hitting coach and manager. He's also loaned his insights to ESPN's college baseball coverage and hosted an eponymous podcast.

More than most retired players of his generation, the 51-year-old actively patrolsTwitter/X for opportunities to agitate. His online persona epitomizes the "back in my day" attitude that many players take on in retirement — invariably complaining and rarely complimenting any change to the way the baseball industry operates.

Mientkiewicz's latest target: ESPN national baseball writer Jeff Passan.

Passan had a busy day Thursday, the day of the MLB trade deadline. Passan authored dozens of post that day, perhaps none less provacative than this one: "Among the return to the Pirates in Bednar deal, per ESPN sources: Catcher Rafael Flores, who tore up AA, is now at AAA, is a top-shelf framer and regarded as a big league-ready catcher. A very good centerpiece. Also in it: Edgleen Perez, who is 19 with excellent swing decisions."

Mientkiewicz's beef?

"Man what a time to be alive when a non baseball person writes 'excellent swing decisions' for a guy hitting 209 in A ball and is a career .241 hitter," he wrote in response to Passan. "I swear some scouts and writers will say anything to sound somewhat intelligent to non baseball people."

The two went back and forth. The tl;dr version goes like this: Passan asked Mientkiewicz to clarify whether his point was about batting average. Mientkiewicz said his point was about Passan not giving credit to scouts in his original post (though not the ones who "will say anything to sound somewhat intelligent to non baseball people," presumably), and then said people laugh at Passan behind his back.

What particularly delighted the internet — judging by the 11,000-plus likes it got by late Friday — was this retort from Passan: "There’s nothing more sad than an old ballplayer who wants things to be like they once were and is too incurious to care the game passed them by."

Even former New York Mets GM Zack Scott enjoyed the show.

"Sometimes it’s entertaining when a nerd stuffs a jock in a locker," Scott wrote.

Mientkiewicz is hardly the only ex-athlete who feels they shed too much blood, sweat, and tears to idly watch someone who didn't play baseball enjoy a larger platform to talk about the game he loves.

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More than an incurious attitude, it's the black-and-white worldview of "baseball people" and "non-baseball people" that people like Mientkiewicz will never be cured of. Unless he treats both parties with respect, he'll have a difficult time persuading anyone of his baseball insights.

But that's Communications 101 — a class Passan is eminently qualified to teach, and one Mientkiewicz ought to take. At least Passan took him to school virtually.

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