Baseball Facebook Hack: Yankee Gets 'Sex Change' [UPDATED]

 By 
Sam Laird
 on 
Baseball Facebook Hack: Yankee Gets 'Sex Change' [UPDATED]

UPDATE: Major League baseball sent the following statement late Thursday afternoon: For a brief moment today, a few MLB Club Facebook accounts were hacked and inappropriate material was briefly on display from those Clubs' pages on Facebook. MLB Advanced Media oversees these Facebook pages on behalf of the Clubs and regrets this occurrence. We are working with Facebook, Major League Baseball Security and, where appropriate, legal authorities to determine the circumstances surrounding this situation.

New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter is getting a sex change operation to become Minnie Mantlez. That was the news subscribers to the Yankees' Facebook Page received Thursday afternoon via this post, which was either the victim of an obvious hack or some very poor humor:

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The post has since been removed. That screenshot, via the sports blog Deadspin, was only the most prominent incident in a rough day for Major League Baseball teams on Facebook.

A screengrab from Facebook user Brent Blackaby shows the San Francsico Giants being hit by a like-minded hacker:

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The Chicago Cubs ("Fuck Bill Murray"), Miami Marlins ("FREE PITBULL NIGHT"), San Diego Padres (handicapped attendance "STRONGLY DISCOURAGED") and Washington Nationals were all hit with fake posts that were subsequently removed.

Mashable has contacted Major League Baseball for comment, but so far not received any response. MLB Advanced Media oversees all its teams' digital efforts, so it's possible all of the team passwords were stored in one place -- making it easy for a hacker to gain login info for every franchise.

Or it could simply be the result of a sophisticated coordinated attack months or even years in the making. We'll update this story when we know more, but let us know your take in the comments.

After apologizing to their Twitter followers, the Cubs responded later Thursday afternoon with this excellent tweet:

For the record, the #Cubs are big fans of Bill Murray. #NotHacked— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 2, 2012

Are these hacks a funny prank to you -- or distasteful? Let us know in the comments.

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