Oct 14, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Jed Hoyer, General Manager for the Chicago Cubs, talks with media during workouts the day prior to the start of the NLCS baseball series at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Jon Durr-USA TODAY Sports
MLBBy Matt Clapp on

On April 14, 2009, a tweet surfaced from an account with the username @JedHoyer. The tweet simply read, “spanking it.”

There wasn’t another tweet from the account until November 3, 2016, when the Chicago Cubs won the World Series: “Aaahhhhh! Anyone have a hand towel?”

Jed Hoyer is the general manager of the Cubs, and doesn’t have access to this Twitter account. When the first tweet emerged in 2009, Hoyer was an assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox.

In 2015, Hoyer told Chicago sports radio station 670 The Score that  “knows the guilty party that set it up,” and it was “set up as a joke.”

“I’m aware of it, yeah,” Hoyer said. “It was set up as a joke, as you might imagine, and it’s sort of taken on a life of its own. I know the guilty party that set it up. I have no access to that account, so I have no ability to change it.”

In Chicago, Hoyer works under president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, and in Boston, Hoyer worked under general manager Theo Epstein. They’re close friends and began working together in Boston in 2002. So connect the dots and you can understand why many have suspected that the account is run by Epstein.

Eventually the Twitter account was changed to @JedHoyer_, allowing the real Hoyer to get his own Twitter account, @JedHoyer, which he’s never tweeted from.

On Thursday, Hoyer took over the Cubs’ official Twitter account for an hour, and he immediately addressed the mysterious Twitter account in this video from Mesa, AZ.

“I’ve gotten so many questions about the @JedHoyer account, I felt like I couldn’t start this without talking about it. So, I just wanted to let you guys know I’ve hired a team of cyber security experts. They’re on the case. They’ve been looking into this ever since we won the World Series. We have not figured out who did it this time, or who did it last time. I think the only way we’ll ever find out is to win the World Series again. But I want you guys to know we’re on the case, we’re gonna solve the problem, and whoever is doing this is gonna be stopped.”

It’s definitely Theo.

About Matt Clapp

Matt is an editor at The Comeback. He attended Colorado State University, wishes he was Saved by the Bell's Zack Morris, and idolizes Larry David. And loves pizza and dogs because obviously.

He can be followed on Twitter at @Matt2Clapp (also @TheBlogfines for Cubs/MLB tweets and @DaBearNecess for Bears/NFL tweets), and can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.

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