Americas Pastime needs to get with the Times.
Baseball needs a pick me up to live on as “America’s Pastime”. Attention to the sport of baseball continues to decline. From 1973–2000 the average viewership of the World Series was around 31 million views. That number has been wiped in recent years; from 2001–2019 the average amount of viewers who tuned into the 7 game Champion deciding series fell to around 16 million viewers on average. There must be something that Major League Baseball can do to make sure the game lives on and continue to grow the interest. I have a few ideas that might be starting points to bring back the interest in “America’s Pastime”.
In recent years Major League Baseball has made it clear to the public they want to increase the interest in the sport. They talk and make changes to the game such as increasing pace of play by adding pitching clocks, 3 batter minimum for pitchers coming out of the bullpen, runner on second base to start extra innings, and are now debating about the designated hitter. In my opinion the game itself is not needing a drastic change. What brings entertainment out of the game are the players themselves like their actions and reactions on the field. The drama of the batter bat flipping as he hits a home run to take the lead and the pitcher getting upset and showing disgust that he failed in his objective. Or the other way around when the game is on the line and the pitcher strikes out a batter to end an inning that keeps the team on the field in the lead and the pitcher throws his hands up and screams in excitement. These are things that are good for the game of baseball because it shows the emotion of the two teams competing at a high level. I believe there are some actions that Major League Baseball can take and encourage to grow interest in the game without changing much of the game itself.
Major League Baseball needs to push and market the players themselves and allow the players to grow the game in their own way. The world outside of baseball is constantly changing with quick access into people lives and routines. We are already seeing players take advantage of this; such as players sharing a quick video on Instagram of their morning workout routine, or maybe a quick glance into a bullpen session. One player that is really capitalizing on the new age of technology is Trevor Bauer.
He is marketing himself and the game by sharing information and his own lifestyle with his personal vlogs as well as helping others accomplish this with his company Momentum. He is bringing a new perspective for fans to get a taste of, which in the new world of quick sharing technology gains attention. I think that MLB needs to encourage this type of content. I do not think by any means players should be forced to carry around a camera and record as much of their daily life as possible but the encouragement and assistance with it if a player wants to should be there. Let players use these platforms to voice their opinions; of course if they are professional about it, as they are professionals. Major League Baseball could learn and do things that other leagues such as the NFL are doing to market their players with their Mic’d up series on Youtube. This is a great way to bring more interest in the game as you learn more about players themselves and their personalities. Baseball teams social media teams should be encouraged to go behind the scenes to create content. Not in such way that is to intruding but for example clubhouse tours; the players don't have to be in the clubhouse. Another thing that Major League Baseball could do is find ways to make games more accessible and try to promote the game to younger generations such as the NFL did with a special broadcast of a playoff game onto Nickelodeon to show the game off to younger kids. As far as the broadcasting of MLB games I think they need to make it more accessible to people who do actually want to watch their favorite teams but cant because of blackout restrictions. Along with broadcasting of the games I think there are things that the MLB could try out to make the broadcast different and exciting such as have a special broadcast a couple times a year and invite baseball influencers or former players into the booth along with the broadcasters. How cool would it be to have someone like Jomboy and his crew commentate a Yankees game once a year? Maybe try freshening up the broadcasts to include new camera angles. One cool idea would be a special broadcast on MLB.com where people could get on and interactively switch through a different set of camera angles. We are in an information era. Imagine growing up and having access to see what your favorite players pre game warm up included or even having access to know what your favorite players interests are. These are things that in this day is what draws attention from younger audiences. Not every player is going to want to share these things, which is okay; players that do want to should be encouraged to because it brings more attention to the game. How cool is it to go to a baseball game and look out on the mound at one of your favorite players and get a sense that you are familiar with him as a person. Instead of changing the game itself Baseball could grow back into popularity with creative ways of marketing players and creative ways of sharing the gameplay itself.
Let me know your thoughts with a comment! Do you agree, disagree or is there something important that I missed?
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