Rich Lowry is the editor-in-chief of National Review. On Monday, he wrote an article about Toronto Blue Jays catcher Brady Deeker, a non-binary athlete the team called up from the minor leagues to start for the big league club.
One problem: Brady Deeker doesn’t exist. He is not a real baseball player, not even a real person. Lowry made it up to prove a point.
The article is presented as real news, but it is clearly satire. I saw the story making the rounds and realized after the second sentence that it couldn’t be real.
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Kevin Gausman #34 of the Toronto Blue Jays is carried out of the game by manager John Schneider on a break against the Minnesota Twins during the fifth inning in their MLB game at Rogers Center on June 11, 2023 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Mark Blinch/Getty Images)
Lowry «quotes» Blue Jays General Manager Ross Atkins as saying, «The Blue Jays organization is thrilled to be making baseball history and being at the forefront of LGBTQ2S+ progress. Now every day can be LGBTQ2S Day.» Pride in the stadium.»
Some of you may think that it doesn’t sound so crazy. And, to be honest, it’s not completely absurd. However, no professional sports GM would say that.
He further claims that Atkins vowed to hit the cleanup of the imaginary catcher, despite being a career .207 minor league hitter.
Lowry then «quotes» Blue Jays manager John Schneider, who «says,» «Alejandro [Kirk, the team’s starting catcher] He’s a key person for us, but of course he’s fully committed to supporting the LGBT+ community by DHing now and occasionally endorsing Deeker, assuming Brady’s okay with that.»
Again, clearly not something an MLB manager would do or say.
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Anthony Bass #52 of the Toronto Blue Jays throws during the game between the Detroit Tigers and the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Center on Tuesday, April 11, 2023 in Toronto, Canada. (Photos by Thomas Skrlj/MLB via Getty Images)
To close the article, Lowry writes that ESPN is already working on a documentary about the fictional catcher.
«an ESPN30 for 30 tentatively titled documentary The Catcher Who Was None: The Brady Deeker Storyis scheduled for release in the fall.
Rich Lowry’s National Review story meant an opportunity for the Toronto Blue Jays to deal with Anthony Bass.
Obvious satire of Lowry who claims to have written as a comment on the team’s decision to designate pitcher Anthony Bass for assignment.
«I wanted to make fun of the Blue Jays for their ridiculous decision to DFA Anthony Bass for his sincere beliefs,» Lowry said exclusively. kick. «The parody was the only way to do it justice because we are in absurd times.
«Although it was clearly written to be satire, it’s actually not that far from plausible.»
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Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Cavan Biggios in the eighth inning, a three-run homer, earns praise from pinch runner Kevin Kiermaier and Alejandro Kirk as the Jays take the lead as the Toronto Blue Jays come back to beat The Minnesota Twins 7-6 at the Rogers Center in Toronto June 11, 2023. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
He is right. that he is not that far from credible. Which is exactly what makes something great satire.
Unfortunately, some people thought it was TOO realistic. So realistic, in fact, that it was republished as true.
One of those people is conservative pundit Ben Shapiro. He sent a tweet to the 5.8 million followers of him.
Fifteen minutes later, Shapiro sent a follow-up tweet stating that he realized the Blue Jays article was satirical.
Most likely, someone alerted Shapiro to this fact. But not before more than 750,000 people saw the first tweet from him, believing the story was real.
Shapiro also can’t use the excuse that he didn’t actually read the story and only saw the headline. He noted that Deeker hit .207 in the minor leagues.
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Anthony Bass #52 of the Toronto Blue Jays throws in the 7th inning during a game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on May 22, 2023 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Mike Ehrman/Getty Images)
Since Deeker doesn’t exist, the only place to get that figure is from the Lowry fake news.
It’s a reminder that in today’s world, be careful what you believe.
Sometimes incredible things turn out to be real. Sometimes believable things turn out not to be real.
Stay safe online my friends.