By Michael Natelli ‘14

In a world where professional sports leagues left and right are getting bad press for scandals, steroids and greed-driven lockouts, it’s becoming near-impossible for a six-year old to pick a sports star as a role model. There always seems to be something new on Sportscenter that takes away from the romanticism and joy that comes from sports and the relationship between fan and athlete.

Social media might serve as the duct tape that holds this relationship together.

In the MLB and NHL lockouts of the 1990s, players essentially went into exile, leaving fans out in the cold. But now, players have taken to outlets like Twitter, Facebook to interact with fans and make the experience of being a sports enthusiast just a little more personal.

While there are currently no sports in lockout (wait, let me check again, nope, still no lockouts), bad press is as much a part of the sports world’s daily routine as mentioning Robert Griffin’s knee on Sportscenter six times in the same hour, so having these ambassadors that take 20 minutes a day answering questions really goes a long way in doing daily patch jobs to the public opinion of pro sports.

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson got the most recent trend starting when he opened up an account on the question-and-answer site Ask.FM. The site is primarily used by teenagers that feel the need to drop flirtatious and/or sexual comments to their peers without having their names attached to said comments, but Wilson opened it up as a way answering fan mail. Wilson has since gone to some of his football-playing friends and had them do the same.

And while it may seem like fans’ chances of actually getting responses on these social media sites is slim, some athletes actually schedule times where they’ll come on and answer questions for a good 30-60 minutes. Minor league baseball players are notorious for doing this on their long bus rides from state to state, and some will even get into giveaway-offs, where they’ll compete to see which player can give away the coolest piece of memorabilia through a Twitter trivia contest.

But winning one of these contests is hardly the coolest thing that can happen to someone who tweets at their favorite athlete.

Last year, Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips received a request via Twitter for him to show up a 9-year old’s little league baseball game. Instead of replying, Phillips simply showed up, watched the game, and stayed after to hang out with the aspiring baseball player and his team. Ten years ago, that boy would’ve had to mail a letter to Phillips that would, in all likelihood, wind up in a pile of mail to recycle at his agent’s office.

While the demographic of sports fans is growing at an exponential rate, it still seems as though the connection between athletes and fans is hanging by a thread.