It seemed the fan’s suggestion for what the baseball star should do with his money was not well-received.

When you’re famous, it goes without saying that you’re in the public eye, and that means people are going to comment on everything you do and say. If you wear the wrong shirt, have fun the wrong way, or use an “inappropriate” method to show love for your family, be prepared to lose followers and fans while being barraged with criticism.

Some celebrities ignore it, some take it quietly, and others–for better or worse–fight back. Yu Darvish, Japanese baseball player and pitcher for the Chicago Cubs major league baseball team, is one of the latter, as one netizen learned the hard way.

But in this case Darvish wasn’t exactly criticized–he was actually given an unusual request by one of his fans. It started when Darvish (@faridyu) tweeted about a video on his YouTube channel, saying “The sound quality on my latest video was so bad I got my first thumbs down. ” In reply to that tweet, Twitter user Tatsuya (@tXqndZy0BQVHajd) wrote (translation below):

https://twitter.com/tXqndZy0BQVHajd/status/1197342250776162304

“Mr. Darvish! Sorry to tweet you out of the blue.
Why don’t you put ads on your YouTube channel, and then use the revenue to buy baseball equipment for kids in need, or something like that?
If I could I would do it, but I’m a little bit limited financially, so I would like to see someone with influence like you do it!
Please!”

On paper it’s a nice suggestion–everyone loves a charitable celebrity, and it would be a nice way to use the extra income. But Darvish did not seem especially pleased by being told how to spend his money. His reply was swift and sharp, to the tune of “why don’t you do it instead?”

“People shouldn’t tell other people what to do with their money. Everyone is taking time out of their life to earn money. Before telling anyone what to do, start by doing something yourself. And if you can’t, then don’t go about telling other people what to do.
I’ve already decided what to do with my YouTube channel. It’s almost coming to an end.”

Darvish makes a good point in saying that, if you’re not doing anything to help the needy yourself, you shouldn’t preach it to anyone else. Most netizens agreed with Darvish, saying that Tatsuya was in the wrong to make such a request of him:

“If your finances are limited, why not donate to your limit? I wonder about this kind of virtue that relies on others to do good.”
“Being unnecessarily asked to donate makes people want to donate less.”
“[Darvish] is totally right. Only you can decide what to do with the money you make.”
“Do it yourself!”
“Donations are not a thing you ask someone else to do for you, and to suddenly ask Mr. Darvish to do such a thing is really rude.”

They were also quick to tell Tatsuya that Darvish already donates much of his 20 million dollar salary to disaster relief and other charities without being told.

Some netizens sided with Tatsuya, however, saying it was a good idea, or that they understand the sentiment behind the idea. Others found fault in Darvish’s response. They found his tone to be a little bit harsh, as if he was saying, “Don’t tell me what to do with my money!”

“I think Darvish is right, but, and I don’t know if Tatsuya is saying you should do it a specific way or whether it’s a suggestion, but it sounds to me like it’s just a request…I don’t think you had to be so mean lol”
“If someone says something against your opinion…hmm…let me think…you could just ignore it.”
“I do agree that the original poster’s thinking was a little naive, but they only asked once and they were very polite about it, so was it really necessary to humiliate them in front of your huge crowd of followers? You could have replied to them with a DM, or even to their tweet. You didn’t have to retweet their comment with your reply.”

But since the majority of comments criticized Tatsuya, he made a follow-up tweet to defend himself:

“My tweet seems have blown up a little bit. Thank you everyone.
It only takes one button to turn on ads, and then you can earn millions of yen. The viewers, Mr. Darvish, and the people in need will all benefit, so it would be a win-win, right? That’s what I thought when I proposed the idea.”

To which Darvish again replied, somewhat bitingly:

“It might take just one button to turn on ads, but what about all the rest of the work I’ve put into my YouTube channel? Do you understand that I’m using my irreplaceable time for this? And by the way, where is my win in this situation?”

While it’s true that maybe it’s not a win for everybody–nobody wants more YouTube ads, for example–we might have to agree with some of the netizens who criticized Darvish, as it does sound like he let his annoyance get the better of him. But chiefly, in the end what Darvish had to say about the whole affair was:

“You could do what you’re telling me to do if you were in my place. But this is my life, my Twitter account. There are people who like it, and people who don’t. I don’t especially want everyone to like me. I take responsibility for myself. At this point nobody has the right to criticize me.”

So, in essence: “haters gonna hate,” he says. But though Darvish does tend to be very straightforward with his opinions on Twitter, he doesn’t seem to be a bad guy–he even gifted a fan one of his baseball gloves! And either way we can’t help but sympathize with both him and Tatsuya, as it’s never fun taking the brunt of keyboard warrior criticisms.

Source: Twitter/@faridyu via My Game News Flash
Featured image: Instagram/darvishsefat11
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