The Red Sox have officially released former third-round pick, Brett Netzer, following a series of racist, homophobic, and antisemitic posts on Twitter, according to Chad Jennings, who covers the Red Sox for The Athletic.
Netzer, a third baseman who was drafted by the Red Sox in 2017, tweeted multiple attacks on African Americans, transgender people, and Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom.
On February 9, Netzer sounded quite normal when he posted on Facebook: “Over the past year or so I decided to take somewhat of a break from social media and the phone in general and to be honest, it’s been rather depressing seeing people show worry, concern and even disappointment solely based on a lack of instantaneous communication and updates.”
On Feb. 13, he posted a long diatribe on Facebook about Christianity, the Hebrew Bible, and human sacrifice (see the embed below).
Then, on Feb. 26, 4:19 AM, he tweeted: “‘Shares’ on your stuff on social media is thought of as a good thing when in reality it just means more people are gossiping about you.” OK, still sane and collected.
A little later, same day, 4:34 AM: “Nobody should consider themselves to be a ‘fan,’ for any reason, of another human being. It implies they are a god over you.” This is the first time the third baseman interjected a preachy tune into his tweet.
Same day, 5:03 AM: “One thing I’ve learned since I stopped playing is that the more followers, or fans, somebody has just means they have a ton of snakes around… The real ones stay silent… Like silent-silent…” You sense the emerging anger?
Netzer also attacked transgender people but his imagery was too colorful for this family newspaper. As to African Americans, he waxed philosophical on Feb. 26 at 6:42 AM: “The popular slavery/oppression victim-card doesn’t go very far when the Egyptians were the first people to enslave the One True God’s chosen people, the Hebrews. Ironically, there is no word for irony in Hebrew LOL.”
Yes, there is: “Ironia.” For that matter, English doesn’t have a word for irony either: the term has its roots in the Greek comic character Eiron, a clever underdog who uses his wit to triumph over the boastful character Alazon. The Socratic irony of the Platonic dialogues is rooted in this comic origin.
A little earlier, at 6:10 AM on Saturday, Feb. 26, Netzer tweeted: “Chaim Bloom is a bad actor. Dude went to Hebrew school and studied the Torah growing up but sold his soul to the Sodom and race groups. Good thing he is good at whatever he does in baseball.”
Chaim David Bloom, 39, is the Chief Baseball Officer for the Boston Red Sox of the Major League Baseball, having previously worked for the Tampa Bay Rays as Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations. Bloom, who hails from Philadelphia, is Jewish and keeps kosher. His father Benjamin Bloom is an eye doctor, and his mother Esther Stern-Bloom is a retired Hebrew and French teacher (source: Tablet Magazine). He really did attend the Akiba Hebrew Academy (a.k.a. the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy) in Greater Philadelphia and received a bachelor’s degree in Latin Classics from Yale College.
At 6:48 PM, presumably, after he had had a chance to sleep off the all-night drunk, Netzer tweeted: “And if I remember correctly, Chaim Bloom supports Black Lives Matter, the organization, and the group of sodomy, LGBT pride. Maybe there should be a word for ironic in Hebrew.”
Chris Hatfield, a sports podcaster covering the Red Sox, explained: “Netzer was on the restricted list last year and didn’t play. I was told in May he’d decided not to play baseball. Rant today is after a year-plus of silence on his social media. Hopefully, he gets the help he seems to need.”
Hopefully.
