Kirk Herbstreit calls Reds beat writer a 'troll' after Twitter dispute

You might think there is nothing in the world Kirk Herbstreit is more passionate about than college football. Well, you might be wrong. This week, Herbstreit has ripped off a tornado of tweets about his favorite baseball team: the Cincinnati Reds. His outburst was initially sparked by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and C. Trent Rosecrans, who wrote a piece about the Reds’ stash of excellent young prospects, explaining that most of them play in the infield and could put current starting 2nd baseman and 2021 NL Rookie of the Year Jonathan India out of an infield position.

The article even suggested the Reds may trade India if they can’t put the puzzle together in the infield with all the youngsters — and that’s what sent Herby in hysteria.

“This team hasn’t had a leader that pushed his teammates every day since Scott Rolen left in 2012 and we finally have that guy and you write this article???” Herbstreit screamed at Rosenthal over Twitter. “India’s value goes far beyond the numbers. As excited as we all are about the young talent coming up India needs to be the ROCK and catalyst for years to come. Put De La Cruz in the OF and move on.”

After that tirade Rosecrans, a Reds beat reporter, took issue with Herbstreit’s call-out of he and his coworker. “Kirk, did you read the article?” asked Rosecrans. “Half the article is saying this value is beyond the numbers.”

Herbstreit assured Rosecrans that he did read the article and believes the proposed issue has a simple remedy. “What appears to be a logjam in the IF is an easy fix…guys learn to play other positions,” Herby responded.

Later on, Rosecrans responded to a video of Kirk Herbstreit discussing his infuriation at the article, saying that he shouldn’t tell baseball writers how to do their jobs when he doesn’t even know much about some of the prospects he’s talking about.

But Herbstreit put the argument to bed after that jab, writing: “Never told you how to do your job — I don’t even know who you are. I’m a fan who loves his team you’re a troll looking for attention. Hustle back to creating clicks and causing trouble!”

Wow. Who knew that Kirk Herbstreit of all people gets this fired up about the Cincinnati Reds. Your writer here is a lifelong Cincy sports fan who’s never even seen the Reds win a playoff series (and was in the building when the Bengals finally broke through) — and Herbstreit is still this passionate despite the rotten luck for the last, oh, 25 years. So good on him for staying loyal as a small-market fan.