Fox 6 in Milwaukee Tweeted this tonight: “Internet whisper says Brewers have completed deal for Royals SP Zack Greinke. Brewers supposedly sending Royals JJ Hardy, Manny Parra, Mat Gamel & Angel Salome !!! … We called Brewers GM Doug Melvin to either confirm or deny, but he’s not answering or responding right now.”
As a long-suffering Royals fan, you can imagine how I felt when I saw those Tweets. So I immediately did a Google News search and this is the only result I found:
One result? From Bleacher Report? One guess when I clicked…
The article had been deleted from BleacherReport.com, but here’s the contents:
Yes, there is no typo in the title.
I heard rumors today that the Milwaukee Brewers have reached an angreement with the Kansas City Royals to acquire the rights of Zack Greinke and unknown minor leaguers for the rights of JJ Hardy, Manny Parra, Mat Gamel, and Angel Salome.
I looked at every Brewers news source I could think of, but there are no official news or rumors related to this move.
If the trade indeed proves to be more than a speculation here are the numbers for each player for the 2009 season in their respective league.
Now for the “about” description on the Bleacher Report site: “Bleacher Report is an open source sports network where you can write your own sports articles and read columns about your favorite teams.”
It’s cool for fans to “write their own sports articles” on a website. But when the contents of that site are listed on Google News, you get a Fox-TV station in Milwaukee Tweeting to hundreds of sports fans in Milwaukee that the Brewers might have just landed Zack Greinke.
After the Fox 6 Tweeted the possibility, the rumor was shot down by local media types, include Milwaukee sports radio guy Doug Russell.
That hasn’t stopped the rumor though from spreading like wildfire on Twitter.
Google News might just want to re-evaluate what a news site constitutes, so Eddie from Waukesha doesn’t send the local media outlets atitter again.
12:19 am on October 19th, 2009
Brooks I ought to kill you. From now on go to mlbtraderumors.com. I didn’t believe it before I read the whole thing but you still made me about shit my pants and throw up at the same time.
1:04 am on October 19th, 2009
Ben,
Same reax I had.
1:18 am on October 19th, 2009
The main thing that tipped it off was that JJ Hardy was the first guy listed, I know Dayton hasnt given up on Yuni yet…sadly (sidenote I think it’s time to switch out king carl with moore on your avatar)
11:17 am on October 20th, 2009
Much like you shouldn’t trust Wikipedia, you should never trust Bleacher Report. They’re both great places to go for people who enjoy perpetrating hoaxes because the sites are not policed and the information posted is not verified.
3:48 pm on October 29th, 2009
Man I almost had a heart attack. Holy Jesus I am still panicking.. Greinke to the Crew would have been holy heart attack