Colorado Rockies balance perception, reality, and the trolls of social media

Bard admits he is thankful that social media wasn’t as prevalent in the early days of his career, when he was pitching for the Boston Red Sox from 2009-13.

“When you’re younger, you view things differently,” the 36-year-old Bard explains. “You may be thinking, ‘Hey, these are possibly my peers telling me I suck.’ I think that weighs a lot on you when you’re younger. I think as you get older, you know who you are.

“I’ve been through some stuff like this. At the end of the day, this is a game and a really awesome way to make a living and that’s that’s how I view it now. This is a chance to do something really cool with my life and with a really good group of guys. I just focus on that every day. If people want to nitpick negatives, they will.”

An older Bard has realized something that those who criticize him in the media and on social media haven’t yet.

“Part of my job is going to include some blown games,” Bard explains. “Even if I had a great season, I would still blow probably five games in a year. People will have their words after each one, but if I let that define how I defined myself, I wouldn’t be very good in my role.”

And yes, some of you are thinking back to the blown saves Bard has logged this season, including games against the Cubs in Chicago. The blown saves will come, and so will the comments. It’s part of the job, Bard says, and it has progressively gotten worse as the years have gone on, partially because of the anonymous nature that social media allows those who choose to spew their venom after a loss.

Ryan McMahon isn’t out there throwing in the ninth inning to try to earn the save like Bard. On the opposite end of the spectrum, McMahon is looking to add to Colorado’s lead heading into the later innings so that Bard’s job is easier.

While Bard will get the heat after a blown save, that doesn’t mean the trolling after a subpar performance is reserved just for pitchers. McMahon has seen plenty of it as well on nights when an 0-for-4 outing or error might show up in the box score.

“One thing we do is we compare who get the worst DMs (direct messages) on the bus,” McMahon said while in Chicago. “Sometimes we’ll be sitting on the bus, just hanging out. We had a bad game and somebody will say, ‘Hey, I got a pretty interesting one last night. What did you get?’ It’s part of it.

“My personal opinion is that if you’re taking to that (social media) to make someone feel bad or something like that, your opinion wouldn’t mean anything to me anyway because I don’t think you’re a good person.”

And dealing with those who don’t have the best intentions are part of the problem with the balance of personal and professional life on social media for professional athletes. There are players, like Rockies pitcher Austin Gomber, who may not be active on social media, but have spouses or significant others who are.

Gomber said that he gets why fans and members of the media might monitor his wife’s social media feed, looking for any bit of news or information, especially after his trade from St. Louis to Colorado before the season began.

“There are people out there who are trying to find answers, right?” Gomber asks. “If I was in charge of finding answers, I would probably use that too.”

Like Bard and McMahon, Gomber has seen some negative social media comments pop up after a tough outing, but added, “Those don’t affect me at all.”

Let’s go back to that Padres game where Bard gave up the tying homer in the ninth. The home run was the focus of the frame, obviously, but the hits that eventually brought the tying run to the plate (and the frustrating nature in which they occurred) are easily overlooked.

Here is the infield single from Jake Cronenworth that opened the inning.

And here is the following infield single off the bat of Austin Nola

“Yeah, I was as frustrated as anybody,” Bard said about those two singles to open the ninth. “I was mad at the result but, in the moment, I felt like I was making good pitches. I knew that was soft contact on balls that stayed in in the infield.”

And the pitch that was sent out by Grisham.

“The pitch to Grisham was a well executed backdoor slider that he just took a really good swing at,” Bard said. “In hindsight, would I have thrown a different pitch? Of course. But, in that moment, it seemed like a really good pitch to execute.”

And while decisions are made in the moment and plays often happen at lightning speed, they can live on forever through GIFs, instant replay, and quote tweets. It’s part of the current game, Bard says, and it’s a part that doesn’t faze him, just like the comments, good and bad, he’ll see after every outing.

“You try to be as realistic as you can and not just say, ‘Oh I suck,'” Bard said. “Are you falling behind every hitter? No, not really. You can’t live too long on any moment. Find the mistake and move on.”