There are still some people out there who don't realize that anything they publish on the Internet can be viewed, shared and saved forever.
Even if you think you've deleted it.
Especially if you think you've deleted it.
Sure, Anthony Weiner is the obvious example. But there are others -- many others.
Some want to add Nationals draft pick Zach Houchins the list. The 18-year-old junior college shortstop was a 15th-round pick by the Nats in this year's draft. He apparently also was a Twitter user -- until Thursday.
That's when tweets disappeared, and the Nationals made an announcement that they were "aware of, and are investigating" the messages on an account bearing Houchins' name.
What's the issue? The now-defunct Twitter account apparently included harsh and derogatory language that wasn't becoming of a soon-to-be professional ballplayer.
Sports
As far as we can tell, the issue first came up on the Washington Nationals Fan Forum. Soon after, the For Love of the Nationals blog posted screen grabs of the Twitter account for everyone to see. (You can do your own search to find them. We're not going to link to them here.)
More athletes are hopping onto the social media train these days, but it seems like a lot aren't getting the proper training in knowing when to filter their comments and avoiding public controversies. Heck, as we saw yesterday, some are even using Twitter to trash talk with fellow players.
While athletes aren't the only ones getting in trouble with their tweets, it should be easy for them to avoid it.
Stick with what you know best. Talk about what happens on the field, and set a good example off of it. And please, leave the extracurricular activities and opinions to the musicians, movie stars and Weiners of the world.
