Espo: Barry Enright is building a fan base 140 characters at a time

There is a tall, entertaining, funny man with a large coif of red hair on his head and a beard to match who has taken over Twitter lately.

It's not the popular late night talk show host Conan O'Brien, it's the Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Barry Enright. The 6-foot-3 right-hander may have significantly less followers on the social networking site than his fellow redhead -- Conan had 2,373,521 as of last count -- but he's having a large impact on local baseball fans.

Enright, who joined Twitter last September, has quickly learned how to utilize the site to build a fan base and truly interact with them. It's a skill not every athlete with an account has mastered. He credits his success in the medium to his representation who actually asked him to start tweeting. While they were the reason he got on the site, he quickly became a fan of its power to make new fans and have them learn who he is not just as a player, but as a person as well.

"From the beginning my agency asked me to do it and I kind of fell in love with it," he said Saturday at D-Backs Fan Fest. "I got rid of Facebook and got on to Twitter. I love interacting with people and interacting with fans. I just love having that connection with other people and hopefully having them come out to the ballpark."

While Enright enjoys interacting with people, don't expect anything too off the wall in his 140 character messages. It's just not his style. He sees himself as falling somewhere in between the wild and the strictly informative when it comes to the style of his tweets.

"I'm not too crazy," he joked. "I wouldn't say a bad word about Chad Ochocinco but he's a little over the top for me as far as my personality. I like interacting with fans and joking back and forth. I do a question of the day every night to try to get their insight and go back and forth with them. I'd say I want to be in between Ochocinco and Jared Dudley."

While he doesn't want to be quite as controversial as Ochocinco when it comes to his tweets, it doesn't mean he isn't a fan of reading what the football player and others like him have to say. Enright said he has a wide range of tweeters he enjoys following.

"[San Francisco Giants Closer] Brian Wilson just got on again and he's always hilarious," he said. "You have funny tweets with guys like Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens. I kind of like all of them. We have good informational guys on there. We have Jared Dudley another Arizona guy and Steve Nash who are always jabbing back and forth with each other. I'm trying to get them to come out and actually do a batting practice during the year. I got them to agree to do it. It's a work in progress."

Just because the season is about to start up doesn't mean his Twitter account is about to slow down. The pitcher enjoys tweeting too much.

"I love doing it," Enright said. "I love going back and forth with everybody and answering questions. I'll continue to do it as the season keeps going."

Barry Enright may not deliver a comedic monologue to millions every night but he does deliver a unique view into the life of a Major League Baseball starting pitcher 140 characters at a time. That's why he's quickly becoming the Valley's favorite redhead on Twitter. Just don't ask him if he's seeing anyone.

"I've had some people on my twitter page ask if I'm single," he said. "It always puts me in a little awkward moment. We'll keep that on the down low."

If you aren't already, you can follow Barry on Twitter at @BarryEnright54