Baseball fans now have their own online place to interact and learn more about the lives of their favorite players.
Infield Chatter is a social media network made for players and fans created by the MLB Players Association. It officially launched on Tuesday with more than 1,000 players on board, including David Price, Jose Bautista, Brandon Phillips and Miguel Cabrera.
"We asked for a better way to communicate directly with fans and learn more about them, and make it easy for them to learn more about us," Minnesota Twins pitcher Hector Santiago said via email. "We believe this is the way to go, a true baseball community so that we can just be ourselves."
The idea started a couple of years
"Innovation and influence
With so many people loyal to massive platforms like Facebook,
"There may be a sea change with how fans engage with those want to engage with athletes," said Clark. "This will eliminate a lot of the fluff and
The association previously tried to launch a social network last
"Other social media serve their purpose, and that's fine," Oakland A's outfielder Rajai Davis said via email. "But there is a lot of crazy activity on some of those sites, and they're not always the safest places to post personal stuff. There hasn't been a good spot for baseball fans to gather, until now. I think this is one of the best programs that the players have agreed to work on together."
Scott Booth,
"Social media is modern day feudalism if you think about it," Booth said. "It's all the value going to a few hundred people, and all the work done by a mass audience. The idea that (the major platforms) can be the only thing out there is not true."