Comedian and political commentator Stephen Colbert has control of Major League Baseball’s Twitter feed today, and has already written, “I can’t wait to see Ken Burns’ nine-part documentary about my control of baseball’s twitter feed,” and “Am I the only person who thought @MLB was the twitter handle of Matt LeBlanc?”
No, Colbert did not hack into MLB’s system. He won a bet, beating MLB in the Beat The Streak contest. This is where fans pick one player they think will get a hit each day, in hopes of putting together a streak that bests Joe DiMaggio‘s all-time hit streak record of 56 consecutive games. The reward is $5.6 million.
MLB also rolled out a side game, featuring Colbert. If he could put together a longer streak than MLB itself, he’d win control of their Twitter feed for a day. Colbert won — with a hitting streak of two.
In short, MLB is the Mario Mendoza of its own contest.