Brandon Phillips' Reaction when a Young Fan Tweeted Him During Dinner

Brandon Phillips was having dinner at a local restaurant on Thursday, May 12. Phillips, like many of today's players, has a large following on Twitter.

As he was ordering dessert, Phillips received a tweet from a 14-year-old fan who wanted Phillips to watch his game that evening.

"DatDudeBP should really come watch the 14u Cincy Flames in West Chester tonight."

Phillips finished eating at about 6:10 PM. He later told Paul Tarricone of LD+A Magazine about the experience.

"His game was at 6:15. When I finished eating, it was like 6:10 and I thought, well shoot, I'm going to go to his game. I thought, 'Let me go out and support the little man.' I met all his teammates. I met everybody in the park. It was fun. I had a great time."

The kids were more than astonished that Phillips was going to watch them play, but that is Brandon Phillips. He stayed for the entire game and watched the young man who invited him get three hits in five at-bats in a 13-2 win.

There are many sides to each of us. Phillips blasted the St. Louis Cardinals during the 2010 season when he said, "I hate the Cardinals. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they're little bitches, all of them. I hate the Cardinals."

Recently, quiet, reticent Zach Greinke of the Milwaukee Brewers revealed that his feelings about the Cardinals were similar to those of Phillips as well as many other National League players when he blasted Cardinals right-hander Chris Carpenter.

"They think his presence, his attitude out there sometimes is like a phony attitude," Greinke said. "And then he yells at people. He just stares people down and stuff. And most pitchers just don't do that. And when guys do, I guess some hitters get mad. Some hitters do it to pitchers. But when you do that some people will get mad.

"There's other pitchers in the league that do it, but, I don't know," Greinke said, "a lot of guys on our team don't like Carpenter."

Phillips is one of the game's top players. The Cincinnati Reds had a poor 2011 season, which has resulted in some individuals not realizing how well Phillips performed.

He batted .300/.353/.457 with 18 home runs as the Reds finished a distant third to the division winning Milwaukee Brewers.

Phillips was originally signed by the now defunct Montreal Expos, who traded him to the Cleveland Indians in one of the most one-sided deals in history.

Cleveland sent the Expos Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew in exchange for Phillips, Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee and Lee Stevens. When Phillips disappointed the impatient Tribe, he was sent to the Reds for pitcher Jeff Stevens.

When Brandon Phillips decided to watch the Cincy Flames after dinner, he created a "touchpoint" for the Reds. A touchpoint is a point of contact or interaction between a baseball team (a business) and its fans (customers).

A traditional touchpoint for a baseball team would be to send brochures or flyers to promote ticket sales. Phillips touchpoint was much more effective.

It was sincere and intrinsically motivated.

Reference:

Tarricone, Paul. "Editorial." LD+A Magazine Aug. 2011: 4. General OneFile. Web. 13 Oct. 2011.