Fredi Gonzalez announces A.J. Pierzynski signing in ham store
The Atlanta Braves are keeping busy around the holidays. On Tuesday, they announced the signing of veteran reliever Jason Grilli to a two-year contract. On Wednesday, it was reported the Braves have also signed veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski to a one-year deal, though credit for that scoop doesn’t go to the usual suspects in the baseball reporting field, or even the next wave of teenage reporters hoping to make a name.
Nope. It was actually reported by Aaron Lunsford (@darrenstains on Twitter), whose father learned of the signing while speaking to Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez while they shopped at Honeybaked Ham. Lunsford then tweeted this information to several baseball reporters and his near 3,000 followers on Twitter.
Not long after, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman confirmed the report.
In terms of unusual places for a baseball story to break, this ranks right up there with David Murphy’s daughter’s daycare leaking that he was signing with the Cleveland Indians last November.
Here’s how the conversation went down, according to Lunsford.
To recap, because this story needs to be heard a few times to fully sink in, his father went shopping for a holiday ham and ended up breaking a baseball story. Oh, and if that wasn’t crazy enough, Lunsford added that Wednesday is his father’s birthday, so maybe that’s a birthday ham.
Not a chance! He’s the talk of social media, and all for good reasons. He’s among the most unlikely of baseball sources to report a deal, first and foremost, but it sounds like he’s a decent guy, too. Otherwise, we’re sure Gonzalez would not have been as engaging or forthright with such information. If he’s guilty of anything, it’s being respecful and kind.
Reminder: It always pays to be respectful and kind.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
