If you follow your favorite MLB teams on Twitter or Facebook and noticed anything unusual recently, it may have been related to a widespread breach in security on several pro-sports teams’ social networks late last week. The New York Yankees’ Facebook and Twitter accounts were confirmed as having been ‘compromised’ Thursday afternoon, which led to some embarrassing messages being blasted out to fans. One such message even suggested that Yankees star shortstop Derek Jeter would be undergoing “sexual reassignment surgery”! (which, no doubt, gave Red Sox fans a chuckle…)

But the Yankees weren’t the only target. The Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs and White Sox, San Francisco Giants, Miami Marlins, and San Diego Padres all had suspicious activity on their Twitter pages within the same period of a couple hours, which may have left fans scratching their heads.

It turns out that all hacked account were/are controlled by the Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media division. But this incident begs the question: should professional sports teams risk giving a hacker access to dozens of team accounts with a single security breach? Not only that, but it took the MLB over an hour to remove the inappropriate messages (plenty of time for more than a few THOUSAND screenshots). The Facebook security setting that prompts an account’s owner to enter an SMS security could have saved quite a bit of embarrassment for MLB, teams and players if it had been enabled. And as for Twitter, a security wall could have also be set to review the tweets before they went live.

Celebrities are notorious for getting their social networking accounts hacked which, while sometimes humorous, can do some real damage to public image and brand. So should major celebrities and sports teams beef up their security practices online? With millions watching and following, it may be a good idea.

Read more about the MLB hack at CIO.com.