​Cubs Pitcher Mistaken for Clinton-Trump Debate Moderator Lester Holt on Twitter

Professional baseball players are no strangers to mindless criticism via the great Twitterverse, but Chicago Cubs ace pitcher Jon Lester probably wasn’t expecting what was headed his way last Monday night, when the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton aired from Hofstra University in New York.

That’s because most of the tweets directed at him that night, and the following morning, were meant for Lester Holt, the news anchor who has been mocked for the lack of control he displayed as the moderator of the debate that proved to be one of the most watched presidential debates in American history.

Because Jon Lester and Lester Holt are hard to tell apart.

Most of the wrongly directed comments came from supporters of Trump who thought Lester (Holt) was bias in favor of Clinton during the debate, Deadspin reported on Monday noting the the fury of tweets at Lester went relatively unnoticed for nearly a week.

How did we miss this. People were tweeting at Jon Lester after the debate thinking he was Lester Holt pic.twitter.com/jTZkeclKiK
— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) October 2, 2016

Jon Lester (@JLester34) made fun of many of the ill-informed Twitter users by responding to many of them.

Even the Twitter users who thought Holt did well in moderating the debate were directing compliments at the Cubs pitcher who is a two-time World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox.

People talking about @JLester34 disappearing, but seems like he did a very good job at the debate. Deserves some credit.
— Philosotroll (@thephilosotroll) September 27, 2016

Thanks?

The reason for the numerous amount of people mistaking the two is baffling. It’s not like Holt (@LesterHoltNBC) isn’t on Twitter. The NBC Nightly News anchor has more than 300 followers and a verified account.

But then again, there aren’t many famous people named “Lester” other than these two, and the Twitterverse itself is not new to cases of mistaken identity. The social media platform has provided perhaps the best evidence of the magnitude of misconceptions in the nation.

As one Deadspin commenter pointed out, it’s probably good Torry Holt, the former all-pro football receiver for the St. Louis Rams, does not use Twitter.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons