Red Sox fans jokingly launch smear campaign against Jon Lester
The Red Sox have a bit of history with so-called smear campaigns — leaking out negative information about players or coaches as they leave town. Just ask Terry Francona.
With the Red Sox finishing as the runners-up in the Jon Lester sweepstakes, which the Chicago Cubs won for $155 million, the Internet sprung to life with its own Lester smear campaign. Only it was totally sarcastic and, more or less, a fun way to cope with the loss of their great free-agent hope.
Lester was a farmgrown talent the Red Sox traded to Oakland in July, but had serious hopes of re-signing this offseason. News that he’d picked someone else was a blow to the Red Sox, who desperately need starting pitching, and to their fans, who had very much fallen in love with the idea of a Lester reunion.
The hashtag #SmearCampaign was trending on Twitter much of Wednesday morning, with Red Sox fans (and others, presumably) sending out Lester jokes that fell into the same category as those famous Hunter Pence Signs. The idea started with Boston radio personalities at 98.5 The Sports Hub and propelled through Twitter after that. Here’s a sampling:
This certainly beats the typical “you suck” stuff that fans hurl when athletes break their hearts.
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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
