Kumar Rocker didn’t pay attention to the awful Pirates this past summer, but he couldn’t ignore the Twitter buzz generated by their fans.
Rocker, the ace right-hander at Vanderbilt, is rated the best player in next year’s draft class. As the losses piled up, fans began rooting for their Pirates to #TankForKumar, even without any guarantee at the time that the No. 1 pick would go to the team with the worst record.
Hey, Pittsburgh, Rocker hears ya calling.
“I really enjoyed it,” Rocker said with a grin during a video call Wednesday. “I mean, everyone enjoys social media. They’re lying if they say they don’t.”
Suffering fans in other towns also openly cheered for their teams to tank. Rocker was amused by the tweets and so were his Vanderbilt teammates — although they didn’t dare tease him about it.
“Maybe a little bit, here and there,” outfielder Cooper Davis said.
