There are guys like Anthony Bass littered throughout MLB rosters. You know the type: white bearded guy, often a middle reliever, has something like, Father, husband, follower of Christ in their Twitter bio. These guys don't often interfere with anyone's enjoyment of the sport, because nobody cares much about them and they rarely have a microphone in front of their faces, but sometimes one of them, like Bass, pierces his way into the public consciousness, at which point everyone gets to look at them and agree, Boy, this guy sure fucking sucks.
Bass began his transition from "relatively anonymous middle reliever" to "widely known dipshit" back in April, when he sent a tweet that fit squarely into one of the internet's most annoying genres of post, which we'll call Sulking Defense Of Wife From Non-Existent Inconvenience.
Bass probably could have gotten away with suffering just a few days worth of ribbing on the internet if he had stopped there, but earlier this week he pivoted to a different social media platform, Instagram, where he shared a video from a Christian influencer who urged fellow Christians to boycott Target and Bud Light for the sin of trying to market their products to members of the LGBTQ community. Frothing homophobes have spent the last few weeks fighting a deranged proxy war against those two companies as a way to publicly express their hatred of gay and trans people, and Bass seems to think that's an important fight to lend his voice to, career stability be damned.
The backlash against Bass for sharing the video came quickly, and on Tuesday the Blue Jays marched him in front of a group of reporters, to whom he gave a brief and terse apology without taking any questions:
Things got worse for Bass on Wednesday night, when he made his first appearance for the Jays in front of the home fans since outing himself as a petulant bigot. His entrance into the game was a bad moment for him personally, but a great one for anyone who might take some satisfaction from seeing a few thousand people unite to deliver a clear message: You suck, man!
May this be the last time any of us have to think about Anthony Bass.
