Steve Clevenger hopes his controversial tweets are not the final words of his middling baseball career.
In a recent interview with Yahoo Sports, Clevenger opened up about two inappropriate tweets he sent last year in which he criticized the Black Lives Matter movement and then-President Obama.
“I try not to think about it too much,” said Clevenger, who hasn’t played in the majors since breaking his hand last June. “I try to hold out hope that a couple lines on Twitter won’t end my career. I’m trying to think positive. I want people to know who I really am as a person. I want an opportunity to show people my tweets aren’t who I am or who I want to be.”
Until that day, only baseball diehards knew much about the 30-year-old Clevenger, who had served as a backup catcher on the Cubs, Orioles and Mariners in his six MLB seasons.
Then, on Sept. 22, he sent these tweets:
“BLM is pathetic once again! Obama you are pathetic once again! Everyone involved should be locked behind bars like animals!,” Clevenger tweeted after protests broke out on the streets of Charlotte, NC, in the wake of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. “Black people beating whites when a thug got shot holding a gun by a black officer haha s–t cracks me up. Keep kneeling for the Anthem!”
Clevenger quickly deleted the tweets, but not before they went viral. Mariners brass wasted little time suspending him for the remainder of the season.
The Mariners removed Clevenger from the 40-man roster this offseason, and he opted for free agency over the minor leagues. Yahoo reported a few teams have shown interest in his services, but he has yet to receive even a minor league offer.
Teams are likely hesitant to risk the PR headache that would come with signing Clevenger, weighed against his relatively small value. Clevenger is a career .227 hitter over 484 major league at-bats.
Clevenger told the website that he has been educating himself on what makes America, well, America. He’s been learning about different cultures, the history of the country and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“My words were wrong. I regret every day that I wrote it, and I wish I could take it back,” Clevenger said. “They were harsh. They were mean. They angered a lot of people. And I’m sorry for it. I can only ask for forgiveness.”
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