Rays' David Price apologizes for recent tweets
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price delivers a pitch during Game 2 of the ALDS against the Boston Red Sox. (Oct. 5, 2013) Credit: Getty
As the Rays prepared to play for their postseason lives, David Price stood outside the clubhouse before Monday's ALDS Game 3 at Tropicana Field and apologized for a Twitter rant sparked by a "very dark spot" in his career.
Price was so upset about his own dismal performance Saturday night that he later tweeted something he knew would be a mistake. In that tweet, Price referred to the TBS broadcast crew as "nerds" and also disparaged Tom Verducci, saying he "wasn't even a water boy in high school."
"I am a person I feel like that takes pride in character and that was probably the exact opposite of that," Price said. "And I hurt a lot of people. I embarrassed myself. I embarrassed my family. I embarrassed this organization.
"I feel like I'm somebody who tries to treat people the same way they would treat me. I give people the benefit of the doubt and I didn't do that. I'm sorry."
Price is hardly the first athlete to commit such a misstep in the arena of social media. He even thought twice about the Twitter message but posted it anyway late Saturday night.
"Honestly, I typed it in, I read it to myself a couple times and my emotions were just going so high, I knew that was nothing to tweet about," said Price, who still plans on keeping his account (@DAVIDprice14) "It should not have been tweeted. I knew that. I read it to myself a couple times and I still hit send. My emotions just completely took over the situation.
"I do feel like I'm a good person. With the things that I said after the game on Saturday, I know a lot of people probably have changed their views on the way that they view me, and that probably is what hurts the most."
Price also called David Ortiz during the day off Sunday to apologize for suggesting that he showboated while watching his second homer Saturday.
"I felt bad," Price said. "I got a tremendous amount of respect for that guy and I told him that. It's just an extremely poor decision on my part. It stinks."
