Pirates Bloggers, Fans Begin Twitter Campaign to Lure Edwin Jackson to Pittsburgh

Published: 2^nd Feb 12 10:56 am

Troy Pfaff
Featured NHL Columnist and Pittsburgh Pirates Writer

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Last night, Pittsburgh Pirates bloggers at The “Mc” Effect (@McEffect) and Raise the Jolly Roger (@rtjr) started a campaign on Twitter aimed to lure free agent starting pitcher Edwin Jackson to sign with the Pirates.

The campaign started around midnight, so the amount of support the campaign received is somewhat surprising. They got Edwin Jackson’s Twitter account (@EJ36) to “trend” in Pittsburgh.

Pirates fans tweeted Jackson a plethora of reasons the 28-year-old should don the black and gold next year, some of the serious, but most of them hilarious.

@EJ36 We'll name a sandwich after you. It may have fries and it may have slaw. #ejaxtobucs

February 2, 2012 1:12 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@Aaronkranderson

Aaron K. Anderson

Reason #3 for @ej36: Make PNC Park the house that e-jax & @theCUTCH22 built #ejaxtobucs #BUCN

February 2, 2012 12:01 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@mrhammar

Hammar

Mark Cuban was born in Pittsburgh, he knows Dirk Nowitzki, who is from Germany, same as @ej36. Freakish. #ejaxtobucs

February 2, 2012 12:49 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@McEffect

Jon Anderson

@ej36 Remember when you played for the Rays? Well, we have EVEN MORE PEOPLE IN THE STANDS THAN THAT

February 2, 2012 12:20 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@BucsDugout

Charlie Wilmoth

@EJ36 we play the Astros a lot. It only took Jeff Karstens like 86 pitches to put them down in 9. #ejaxtobucs

February 2, 2012 1:06 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@Aaronkranderson

Aaron K. Anderson

Current Pirates pitchers James McDonald and Joel Hanrahan even got in on the action.

I hope @EJ36 is a bucco next year

February 2, 2012 11:12 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@JamesZ53

James McDonald

@EJ36 @toriihunter48 @RawlingsFstore would look awfully good in some black and gold!!!

February 1, 2012 7:10 pm via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@hanrahan52

Joel Hanrahan

A search of the hashtag #EJaxToBucs turns up some more funny results.

Will Edwin Jackson become the first professional athlete to let Twitter affect his signing decision? Absolutely not. He’s not going to sign with the Pirates. Many news outlets have said Jackson wants to sign a one-year deal with a contending team. Most Pirates fans realize that and know this is all in good fun, but it never hurts to try.

This morning, Jackson actually thanked Pirates fans for the campaign.

Thanks to the #BucsNation for the support It is very much appreciated!

February 2, 2012 10:58 am via TwittelatorReplyRetweetFavorite

@EJ36

Edwin Jackson

Unfortunately, that has more of a “Ha, the Pirates” ring to it than it does “I’m going to call my agent right now and tell him to get a deal done.”

The overall theme here seems to be a sort of “If Neal Huntington won’t try and bring Jackson here, we’ll take it upon ourselves.” Obviously fans have essentially no influence on something like this, but it’s great to see how passionate Pirates fans still are about their baseball team, even after 20 consecutive losing seasons.

Maybe next year.

Follow Troy on Twitter @TroyPfaff

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