Nestor Cortes deactivates Twitter account after 10-year-old tweets become public
Yankees starting pitcher Nestor Cortes delivers the pitch in the first inning against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on Sunday in Chicago. Credit: Getty Images/Quinn Harris
BALTIMORE — The tweets were from a decade ago, but Nestor Cortes wasn’t using that as an excuse.
The lefthander deactivated his Twitter account Sunday night after several screenshots of tweets from when he was 17 came to light. Some of them included racial slurs.
“I felt like it wasn’t the right message I wanted to send out when I was 17 years old,” Cortes, 27, said in the visitor’s clubhouse at Camden Yards on Monday. “I deactivated my Twitter to clean stuff up, clarify everything and hopefully I can make a better impact to the world and the fans that are following me, even my friends and family that look up to me to give a better example.”
The tweets from 10 years ago were directed at friends of his while in high school.
“I didn’t know you go back 10 years on Twitter and look for that,” Cortes said. “But it’s not acceptable. I think I could have managed myself and said stuff differently. But I’m going to work on it and fix it and hopefully people can forget about it.”
Cortes said he became aware of the re-publication of the tweets after the Yankees’ 5-1 victory in Chicago.
“Hopefully I can be back on [Twitter] in the next few days,” Cortes said. “It’s not the right message. I like to attract all the kids . . . hopefully I can start sending better messages.”
