Brian Wilson Tweets No More?

It's a sad day in tweetville.

Brian Wilson, the king of the offbeat tweet, has relinquished his throne.  That is to say, he's closed his twitter account.

If you were a fan of Brian's twitter page, you can thank San Francisco Chronicle reporter Henry Schulman for having bullied Brian into his disappointing decision.  Schulman blogs:

Somebody alerted me to Wilson's Twitter page. Unless somebody hijacked the page, we have to conclude the Giants' closer was out very late Saturday night clubbing in Scottsdale. There are a couple of posts suggesting he was getting into it with what he called "overaggressive males." His last post of the night is stamped "about 22 hours ago," in other words, 1 a.m. Sunday.

Which would not have worth mentioning except that the Giants played a day game today. In that game, Wilson could not throw fastballs where he wanted and lost a 4-1 lead in the ninth for his first blown save of the season. The Giants ended up losing in the 12th, 5-4.

Brian denies the accusation that he was out on Saturday night and insists that he was in his hotel room playing video games.  He comments:

Obviously, it's my fault for making up a bunch of stuff but I know for a fact most of those followers know I'm not being serious. They just like hearing funny stuff. Some people don't understand, but I'm not an idiot, so obviously, I've got to stop.

While it's always hard to get at the truth in these situations, anyone who has ever read what Brian has to tweet knows that it's not a stretch to say that he's a guy with an imagination.  Whether he's talking about his fake ninja skills, envisioning a world run by Chuck Norris, comparing his fashion sensibility with Don Johnson's or speculating about what it would be like to talk with animals, there can be no doubt that Brian's a guys who's creatively inclined.  It isn't impossible to believe that he would be tweeting about a fake run-in with fake people.

And others seem to think so.  At least, others have been quick to come to Brian's defense.  There was Giants beat writer Andrew Baggarly, who noted that Brian did not look like he had had a particularly rough night on the Saturday in question, saying, "I was in the visiting clubhouse at Chase Field early Sunday morning and I didn't notice anything amiss with Wilson. He went about his work like normal."

Teammates from the jockosphere have also stepped up on Brian's behalf.  Bengie Molina blogs:

I know there's been a little dust-up over his Twittering or whatever it is. To be honest, I really don't know what the whole thing was about. But you need to know that Brian Wilson is the hardest-working guy we have on the club. If you could see the way he works out, you'd be amazed.

He feels that if his body is invincible, his mind will be, too. It gives him a feeling hat no one can beat him. No one should have any doubt that baseball is his top priority -- because as all his teammates know, it IS his top priority.

Barry Zito, pitcher and twitterer-in-arms, tweets, "Brian will be missed. I'll pass on the love from you guys."

It's a shame to think that one errant blogger could have the power to stop one of the meanest tweets on the street.  But don't get too despondent.  Given the nature of Brian's relationship with the twittersphere, it may only be a matter of weeks before he's signing on to yet another twitter account, muttering under his breath, "I wish I knew how to quit you."