I suppose this happens more and more, but a fun little media sign-of-the-times from Sunday’s Twins win.

After Michael Cuddyer’s bases-clearing double, he was thrown out trying to take third. I was at the game, and it looked like an idiotic base-running play to me. Star Tribune beat writer La Velle E. Neal III thought the same thing, tweeting:

Bases un-loaded double by Cuddy, but what is up with this team’s baserunning this season? #twins #stribtwins#whereispaulmolitoronthis?

Neal wrote the game story, which focused on Cuddyer’s heroics and didn’t mention the miscue, which proved inconsequential to the final result.

Anyway, Cuddyer did not want to let Neal’s barb go. Three hours after the original tweet (post-game, I hope), Cuddyer tweets:

@LaVelleNeal draw the throw to me. Make sure we got that third run in.

Neal offers a diplomatic response:

@mcuddy5 Understood. My opinion was that the third run was a lock to score already. But u r closer to the play than me.

Although MLB’s video clip isn’t definitive, I’d say Neal was right and Cuddy is spinning.

Anyway, not a big scandal — in fact, two adults acting that way — but as a fan, it’s fun to see the media-athlete back-and-forth extend into a new medium. Cuddyer is a relatively new twitterer (he only started this summer) so I hope he doesn’t turn surly or non-responsive, though social networking can be a demanding compulsion.

[Hat tip: Dean Carlson]