As of this moment, we're following 244 people on Twitter (this is our personal account, not SB Nation DC's). We follow one active athlete (NHL fourth-liner Paul Bissonette) and three retired athletes (Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Oakley, and former MLS striker Taylor Twellman).
The reason we don't follow many athletes is because most athletes either use their feed for self-promotion or hand them off to a friend/relative/publicist to run. There's precious little interaction or unvarnished thought there. Which was why Bryce Harper's Twitter was so refreshing. There was nothing but Bryce, unfiltered and interacting with his public, even if that interaction consisted of little more than "Y U NO REDSKINS FAN? OUTRAEG!!!"
Well, now it appears that the juggernaut known as @BHarper3407 is no more. It was apparently deleted sometime within the last couple of days and coincided with the Nationals holding their annual session on media awareness. According to Adam Kilgore, the Nationals say that Harper made the decision on his own. We think that's true, but we're also pretty sure Harper wasn't begged to keep the thing up.
Anyway, what's done is done and we can go back to concentrating on baseball. Right? Please?