Two weeks after Mizzou football star Michael Sam announced that he planned to become the NFL's first openly gay player, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez revealed via social media that he is definitively, 110 percent, absolutely and positively not gay.
Martinez made the surprise announcement on Twitter, by "favoriting" dozens of explicit pornographic images of women.
On Monday, Martinez's Twitter account went viral after Deadspin published a video roll of his news feed. Below are a few semi-censored highlights:
Cardinals skipper Mike Matheny told reporters yesterday that the images "embarrassed" the club and Martinez. The Cardinals helped Martinez clean up his Twitter account on Monday evening, but by then it was too late. His feed and its raunchy content had gone viral.
Martinez is hardly the first Cardinal humiliated on social media. In 2009 former manager Tony La Russa sued the social-media service for trademark violation when an anonymous user set up a fake Tony La Russa profile. (La Russa later dismissed the lawsuit.) A year later author Buzz Bissinger used Twitter to ridicule La Russa for attending a Tea Party function. And during last year's World Series the Cardinals reprimanded prospect Tyler Melding for using Twitter to accuse Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester of cheating.
Still, at least Martinez got to keep his Twitter account -- boring as it is now. The same cannot be said about Rams cornerback Janoris Jenkins' Instagram account, which disappeared last year after he posted selfies of himself with the caption "strip club ready."
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