Gibby joins Twitter with help from sons

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- D-backs manager Kirk Gibson surprised many Wednesday when he joined the Twitterverse.

"Unreal...so pumped!" came the tweet from @23kgibby just moments before the D-backs took the field for their first full-squad workout.

The tweet left the media scrambling to confirm it was actually Gibson behind the account.

"What did you guys visualize besides saying, 'Oh my God, Gibby just tweeted,'" Gibson said to the media. "I saw you guys scurrying around. I said, 'They're like little kids.'"

Gibson initially set up the account with the help of his sons and had been plotting his first tweet for some time now.

"They were trying to get me to tweet while I was in Hawaii over the holidays," Gibson said of his family. "But I'm not going to do it that way. You're not going to hear what I feel every day, but certain things that I feel are strong or powerful."

Gibson said he will use the account to try and share positive and uplifting messages.

"This won't be very frequently probably, but hopefully there's something behind it that people can identify with and maybe I can lift them up as well," Gibson said. "I'm not a man of a ton of words as you guys know. Sometimes you get [ticked] off at me about it."

D-backs general manager Kevin Towers said he has no plans to join Twitter.

"He's so competitive I'm sure I'm going to find out every day how many followers he has," Towers said of Gibson.

Said D-backs team president/CEO Derrick Hall, "I'm happy for him, because look, this is somebody who encourages our players to be interactive and social media is probably the best vehicle for interaction with fans. And for him to even have an interest in that it shows he values our fans."

Gibson was up to 6,500 followers by early evening Wednesday and Hall said he has no doubt that Gibson hopes to surpass the 18,500 that Hall has.

"At this point the race is on," D-backs managing general partner Ken Kendrick said. "And my money is on Gibby."