Rockies Social Media profile: Gerardo Parra and la vida buena

Who wouldn’t want Gerardo Parra’s life?

It’s beautiful and larger than life and so very, very fun. Moreover, it’s infinitely Instagrammable, which is where Parra spends most of his social media time. In short, Parra’s nickname “El Yolo” (You only live once) is perfect, and that philosophy suffuses his social media presence. Parra illustrates his determination to make the most of every day by focusing on family: his earthly family, his heavenly father, and his teammates.

Twitter

Parra (@88_gparra) sent his first Tweet on April 11, 2015, which was actually a retweet, that would lay the foundation for his social media self:

Thus, El Yolo was born.

Today, Parra has 59.8K Twitter followers. His feed illustrates the challenges of a player reaching both Spanish- and English-speaking audiences. When he began using Twitter, Parra mostly retweeted other accounts and tweeted primarily in Spanish, though he occasionally translated important tweets into English.

Here’s a good example of Parra’s family-centered social media at work. He sent this farewell tweet when leaving to play for Baltimore. In saying goodbye to his Milwaukee family, the Brewers organization and fans, he includes a picture of his own family. That is, he sees this as a relationship rather than a business arrangement.

Parra’s Twitter feed charts his career with the Brewers, the Orioles, and finally the Rockies. He’s a big fan of emojis—so many hearts and red 100s and baseballs—but it’s consistent with “El Yolo,” whose lust for life is too much for words. Who has time? Life is waiting!

Instagram

On January 16, 2016, Parra linked to his new Instagram account (elyologp8), where he really found his voice. This makes sense given that the platform emphasizes graphics over text (and has a handy translate feature). El Yolo’s life is perfect for photographing. Today, Parra has 79.7 thousand followers, and most of his tweets are reposts from Instagram.

The Parras

By far, Gerardo Parra’s favorite subject to Instagram is his family. Here’s how the numbers break down.

Graphic by Eric Garcia McKinley, via Tableau

Gerardo and Victoria (tvictoriam) enjoy bicycling, riding scooters, seeing Pitbull, meeting Dinger, and eating out. (The food always looks wonderful, but it’s less about the food than the atmosphere of the place.) His son, Gerardo Andres, plays soccer and generally does what little boys do. And his infant daughter Aaliyah is adorable. In short, the Parras embrace the YOLO lifestyle.

They travel a lot (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Sedona, The Maldives, Laramie, Universal Studios Orlando, Sea World), and Gerardo’s parents surprised him by visiting him on his birthday. Be advised that El Yolo takes his birthday (May 5) very seriously.

Faith and Inspiration

Gerardo Parra’s faith is a big part of his social media life. He has Instagrammed crucifixes, and there’s a picture of Gerardo and Victoria after mass on Ash Wednesday. He passes along inspirational quotations (there are 9 on Instagram), and the feed is suffused with gratitude. El Yolo has a terrific life, and he’s grateful for it.

Closely related to this is Parra’s volunteer work. He sees the world as part of his family.

Baseball Family

On Instagram, Parra shows himself as part of a sports family–he often refers to fellow players as “mi hermano,” my brother. Here’s how Parra’s Instagram breaks down in terms of his Rockies teammates:

Graphic by Eric Garcia McKinley, via Tableau

Parra is most often photographed with Carlos González (cargo5), like this pic from #NationalBestFriendsDay, but the fact that he is so often photographed with his teammates underscores how much he values his sports family. He includes typical pictures of himself and his teammates behind the scenes and traveling. Then there’s a pic like this that shows El Yolo’s distinctive approach to life:

It’s only fitting that Parra would be the first one to break out the champagne when the Rockies learned they’d clinched a ticket to the wild card game.

Baseball

Obviously, Parra’s Instagram highlights his career as a professional baseball player.

He’s Instagrammed 13 videos of himself working out, and he includes 18 pictures and two videos of himself playing baseball; he also includes six behind-the-scenes videos and 9 pictures.

El Yolo has fun, so it makes sense that Rockies Twitter would make the most of it. On January 10, it pushed the hashtag #GPGetsUsThroughAnOffseasonDay. It was a wonderful stream of Gerardo Parra gifs like this one:

Who wouldn’t share their sunflower seeds with Gerardo Parra? This one went a bit viral, but it’s completely in keeping with who he is.

Final Thoughts

Gerardo Parra’s Instagram exudes the same passion that he brings to the Rockies’ outfield. He’s a great baseball player, but he’s also a lot of fun. Whereas Charlie Blackmon has two selves (Chuck Nazty and Charlie Blackmon), Parra’s personal and professional selves are inseparable.

Why? Because YOLO.