The games (baseball) people play

Since I had only been to the Winter Meetings once before, I was looking forward to this past week. Being among the top brass and media in baseball sounds like a good time. It is, although keep in mind you just don't rub elbows with anyone you want anytime you want. Sure, you see big-name agents and GMs walking through the lobby, but they are usually on their way to something else. Brian Cashman, Theo Epstein and Andy MacPhail were not there just looking for someone to shoot the breeze with. This week, they were probably doing what a lot of reporters were doing: Walking, looking down at their phones and hoping they didn't run someone over or that they look up in time to not spiral down the escalator. The Winter Meetings may be social media at its best and worst. Everyone wants to fire the first tweet. Then, as reporters, we all look to see who tweeted first. Are we just being competitive or acting like children? MLBTradeRumors.com might link our tweet and story and everyone will see we are good. Of course, many of those tweets ranged from slightly off-base to flat-out wrong. There were reporters spending time basically dissing other reporters and their stories. Some of it was not anything to be proud of. There was probably more misinformation and wrong information at these meetings than in some previous editions. When you put that many reporters talking to that many people in one place and feeling some pressure to get it first, that is what happens. Heck, Carlos Pena said the Orioles offered him a contract and the O's said they did not. Was it just semantics or was someone just denying a truth? Maybe what Pena or Scott Boras saw as an offer was just the parameter of a deal and not an official offer. Did the O's say, "Here is our offer" or did they say, "We are willing to do this" to sign Pena and Pena's representatives assumed that was an offer? Is there a difference? If you know the answer, write in and I'll fire off a tweet about it.