When Joey Casselberry should’ve thrown like a girl but struck out
How can you hate on Mo’ne Davis? Especially when you are a college baseball player.
Last week, the Disney Channel announced that it would be making a movie called “Throw Like Mo,” based on Davis’ remarkable story. This is awesome because Davis is awesome. However, some people don’t agree. It’s perfectly OK for you not to agree, but maybe you shouldn’t post an offensive tweet about it when you’re a baseball player for Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. If it shows anything about the person, it shows lack of sportsmanship.
Joey Casselberry tweeted, “Disney is making a movie about Mo’ne Davis? WHAT A JOKE. That slut got rocked by Nevada.”
Unfortunately for Casselberry, a former junior first baseman, the freedom of speech clause that gave him the right to tweet didn’t save him from the consequences. He was dismissed from the team soon after, as the university wasted no time reaching a decision on his status.
Although Casselberry’s Twitter account has since been deleted, the damage has already been done. It’s difficult to understand the ignorance that not only formed such a thought, but also rationalized it as being acceptable and entertaining. The decision to then share it with the world only adds to the foolishness.
Most of us write our tweets a couple of times and think twice before hitting “tweet,” considering how others might see them. If you think about it this way and break down the process, the complexity that begins with formulating the thought and ends in hitting “tweet” doesn’t allow us to sympathize with Casselberry.
But Davis’ response to the unquestionably offensive tweet only proved that she is the most mature 13-year-old girl alive. Davis, with the support of her coach, not only forgave Casselberry for the insult but also reached out to the president of Bloomsburg University and asked him to reconsider the dismissal of the baseball player who called her a “bad name” on Twitter.
The university responded by saying that Casselberry violated the athletic department’s social media policy and, possibly, the school’s code of conduct. While Bloomsburg respects Davis’ opinion and praised her for her maturity about the situation, the school refused to reinstate the baseball player, saying, “Right now, we’re standing firm.”
For his part, as the team’s second-leading hitter at the time of his dismissal, Casselberry apologized for the tweet and said he’s a huge Davis fan. Although he apologized for what he said, he knew exactly what he said and was only sorry that he got caught.
Let’s hope it’s something Casselberry can learn from and maybe even use to help improve himself. We all need a wake-up call at some point in our lives, and perhaps this is Casselberry’s wake-up call.
Playing for a sports team is a privilege, not a right. Athletes are representatives of their team on and off the field. Now that he no longer represents the team, Casselberry can feel free to tweet whatever he wants — if he dares to make a new Twitter account, that is.
Attacking a child says a lot about Casselberry’s character. I’m glad he deleted his twitter account because it just shows that he can’t take responsibility for his words. The tweet and the account might be deleted, but for sure, this will follow him for years and years to come.
