Know your facts before you draw conclusions

If you haven’t seen the heartwarming video and story of the Blue Jays fan who caught a ball and handed it to a young Yankees fan I’d suggest you do so. A gentleman, and I mean true gentleman, named Mike Lanzillota catches a ball hit into the stands by Yankees player Aaron Judge and takes a moment to celebrate the catch, he then does something that has gone viral for all the right reasons – he gives the ball to a young Yankees fan and the emotions pour out. Young Derek Rodriguez was given the ball, he’s Yankees fan but an even bigger Aaron Judge fan and the simple act of giving him the ball has become a shining moment in sport and in humanity.

The story grows as the Yankees and Judge invite Rodriguez to the dugout the next day and Judge signs the ball and gives him some batting gloves, the Blue Jays George Springer gifted Lanzillota with a signed Jays jersey for his selfless act. Now the Yankees have invited Rodriguez to New York to catch a game.

 What it is about this simple act that resonates so much right now? There are so many layers to it, a selfless act of kindness to a young stranger turned into an inspiring story. I’m not cutting onions, you are.

For me there is more to the story now, an internet watch dog has posted a portion of the video backwards and the social media reactions are telling. The post plays the video backwards so that instead of giving the ball to the kid it looks like the adult takes it from him and raises his arms in triumph. It was meant as an eye opening lesson in social media behavior and reaction and it has certainly sparked conversation.

Some of the first reactionary posts are angry, derogatory name calling, demands for the ball to be returned and “He should be thrown out of the ball game” comments. Even after someone else comments that it’s being played in reverse and posts a link to the correct “forward” video there are still more angry comments. And therein lies the social media problem we face today, too many people accept any post to be legitimate without question, they form an opinion and reaction based on false information and have no idea how to differentiate. Those same people are the ones who call main stream media fake, they don’t like the truth so they dismiss it and instead they trust and believe social media posts that are deliberately false.

Think about it the next time you read an online post or story, do you want to believe the ball was taken from a kid? I want to believe that there are still people out there who will do the right thing when no one is watching – it’s called integrity and it’s sadly lacking in social media.