MLB: Pace of Play or Marketing Issue?

Pace of play isn’t the issue holding back the younger generation. An extra 5-10 seconds between pitches isn’t disengaging them from the game. A player adjusting batting gloves or a visit to the mound isn’t disengaging them either. In fact, that’s part of what made Nomar endearing. The strategy involved in these actions, the superstitions, the mind-games, the true timeless nature of the game. These are features baseball should be hyping up, not trying to get rid of. These are the core aspects of baseball that differentiate it from most other sports.

Baseball is philosophical, intelligent, while still maintaining a brutal, competitive reality. This is why baseball is so often said to be a metaphor to life. It’s this ethereal – almost hidden – nature of the game that makes baseball so wonderful. Yes, the tense moments, the big hits, towering home runs and even patient walks are still the exciting things that get all of us going, but it’s the core of the game that includes these other things that makes those moments so powerful and meaningful.

So what’s the issue? Why is the younger generation not embracing the game? Why is MLBs average fan getting older every year?

Baseball has a marketing problem. Baseball as a whole is doing exceedingly well. Attendance (before this year) is up (my thoughts on this year are in a comment below), tv viewings are up, and when looked at regionally, baseball has never been more popular. However, baseball is perceived as losing popularity, especially with youth, but why?

One, baseball has forgotten what it is. During Selig’s reign of terror MLB tried to make the game more popular by reaching out to new demographics, which isn’t a bad idea, but they did so at the expense of the demographics that already were inclined to follow the sport. Baseball also doesn’t showcase its stars. This last season had several perfect examples: such as when the Diamondbacks hosted the Angels, MLB should have had this series pushed heavy with Goldschmidt vs. Trout headlines, but this series was largely ignored.

I know why, MLB doesn’t want the players to be the stars, they want the teams to be the stars. This is a result of Selig’s steroid catastrophe. MLB is afraid that a player they tout might come back to burn them. Though, blemished or not, baseball needs its Bonds, McGwires, Sosas, & Ripkens. They can easily do that with today’s stars, especially with how many of them are younger right now. Hype the hell out of these kids and some of the veterans as well. Ask any teen who they like and don’t like in the NFL and NBA and they can name their “heroes and villains” quickly. In MLB there’s few marketed heroes. I can name a bunch, but I’m invested in the game. Outside of some fans and people in LA, how many people even know who Mike Trout is? Let alone how historically good he’s been? There are no villains right now. Bonds was the last universal villain the game had and Jeter the last universal hero. There are many who can step into these roles for various reasons. But let’s take a look at one of my favorite players to watch, Javy Baez.

Baez is a perfect player to market because of the energy he brings to the field. He even excels at something mundane that is often overlooked, but makes it exciting; and as such, brings attention to the nuance of the game. Nobody thinks about tagging, but Baez turns something so overlooked into an event. We want guys to steal against the Cubs. Not so they’re successful or to see Contreras throw them out, but to see Baez tag them. Aside from Baez when is the last time you thought of a player with “I hope to see him tag someone out”?

But this highlights the other difficulty in marketing players in MLB vs other sports. In the NBA or NFL if you hype Tom Brady or Lebron James they’re going to be the center of the action, they handle the ball regularly. In baseball, if you hype a player, they may not even appear in the game, if they do, they may never have a ball hit or thrown their way, and they might go 0-4 at the plate and just kill the hype. So how do you hype players without killing the hype? Increase the accessibility of media. MLB is already one of the best at this, but they can step it up even more. Easily shareable gifs of highlights that can spread through Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, etc… And HYPE the players and their unique skill sets anyways. So what if someone goes to the game to watch Baez tag someone, Altuve’s hit skill, Kershaw’s curve, Scherzer’s intensity, or any other marketable factor. Once there, if they’re looking for that skill, they might actually learn about baseball. See the nuance in the game. And more importantly, they’ll get to see something exciting that they can easily share with their friends.

They’ll also come to understand that something as simple as a tag, a base on balls, a visit to the mound, or an adjusted batting glove all have a purpose & there are those who are better or just more entertaining at that element of the game than others. As they focus on these details they’ll not only learn to appreciate the whole game, they’ll share the excitement in the little things that make baseball so great to begin with.

The solution isn’t changing rules that strike the core of the game, but to embrace the game and showcase what makes it special to begin with. There are already rules in place to prevent taking advantage of the timeless elements of the game. The solution is to celebrate and market the game for what it is, celebrate and market the diversity in players and their skill sets. Youth will find someone they relate to or look up to and embrace the game.

Appendix

So, why is attendance down this year? I think it’s a combination of factors: first, the weather early made a number of games difficult to attend and many have already commented on this; second, the competitive factor. There are a number of teams this year that aren’t trying to win as they take advantage of baseballs draft system. They’ve seen teams like the Cubs and Astros dump salary and lose for years while hoarding top picks and international signings to rebuild into juggernauts. Why not do the same? But as more teams do this instead of just 1-2, it creates a disincentive for fans to watch those games. Third, I think MLB in its attempt at creating support for their pace of play initiatives over the last couple of years has marketed baseball as boring to watch and has started to create this very problem.

I’ve never heard of anybody claim they didn’t like the game because length of games or pace of play until this year. I used to hear the occasional complaint about baseball being slow or boring, but when you conversed with these fans and drilled down, it came out that they didn’t understand the game, the strategy, the nuance or skill. As these things were explained and pointed out they came to appreciate the game, as well. Instead, MLB is marketing itself as long and boring, difficult to watch. Why would people pay to participate in something touting itself as long and boring? Selig handled the whole steroid issue completely wrong and hurt the game because of it (more on this in a later post), and now his protege is doubling-down on bad marketing strategies and is also going to hurt the game.

I don’t mind change in the game, the game has a long and storied tradition of changing rules, but they’ve always been with the goal of increasing competition and fairness, not rule changes to satisfy marketing ploys and TV or betting contracts.

Part 2

I was recently involved in a twitter discussion on this same topic. One of the participants was a former PR rep for MLB. He used Trout as an example to show his/MLBs view of why it isn’t so simple an issue of “market the players.” However, his arguments just underscored how out of touch with the next generation MLB is in regard to marketing. He argued that MLB can’t do anything to market Trout because he isn’t interested in doing a profile, an ad campaign, or the HR Derby. He continued, “MLB can’t force sponsors to feature him… ESPN to show his highlights or interview him.”

MLB doesn’t need Trout hawking Gatorade or T-Mobile, going on talk-shows, or sitting down for interviews to market the game. As I mentioned above, they need to quit going after fan ambassadors like Rob Friedman (twitter: @pitchingninja) for marketing the game for them by building hype and showing how amazing things often overlooked are, and allow people to use social media to share highlights. They can use these very same clips they own through MLB Advanced Media and build a campaign around players doing amazing and unique things (Trout’s generational talent, Baez’s passion, the Yankees sluggers, etc…). As I said in reply in the thread, “Make it seem like a treat to get to watch him play baseball. ‘You Could See THIS Live!’”