I always thought catchers should be able to paint their helmets like in hockey. They’re the most visible player on a nightly basis and it would show some flare and personality
Baseball also has a huge broadcasting problem. You can turn on TV on any Sunday in Fall and watch 12 different NFL or college football games, whereas baseball are often only showed on regional sports networks, or God forbid, blacked out behind Apple TV+ or a very specific TV package that may or may not be right for your region.
Worst having Joe Buck commentary. I always like local commentators they have favor and mention local things team or player doing. While some just call the game and say “Yeah Mike Trout, he’s a good hitter”
One of the biggest things is the direct impact of players from college to pros. In football and basketball they can go from being a great player in college directly to starting in the NFL/NBA where as in baseball (outside of specific outliers) it can take a couple years before the make MLB and by then their “name brand” that was created in college dissipates by the time they reach MLB
And to add on? Some of these kids don't need college. And when was the last time you followed the AA or AAA league to see their stars to follow their careers into the bigs? You probably don't unless you live in a town w a team
MLB has had a marketing problem since the Steroid Era. Judge, Ohtani, Betts, Harper, Trout & probably now Skenes & Witt too should be all over TV & Social Media ads but MLB keeps on shooting themselves in making terrible decisions on promoting the game.
Here's the BIGGEST marketing problem: In 1965.....58% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball.....By 1985 it dropped to 32% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organzed baseball. In 2021 Only 7% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball......if boys don't play it, they won't follow it. Today it's about bandwagoners and rich corp box seats which fans have no loyalty year to year.
That’s why Ohtani the Gambler was “cleared” and being marketed as an “injured pitcher” making history. If he was really injured he would be playing in the minors
What helps soccer players a lot for marketability and overall popularity are all the different tournaments that occur within the full regular seasons. Messi got to play in the Champions League, Copa America, World Cup, the Copa Del Rey, among other tourneys while playing professionally in Spain, France, and the U.S. MLB could really benefit their star players and the sport overall if they were to create an FA Cup-style tournament and allow the players to decorate their bats, cleats, gloves, and other accessories while competing in said multi-league tourney.
@@MuttonErase FA Cup is a national tournament comprising of ALL senior level English teams. What you're asking for is a Baseball version of the Champions League
I don't want to be one of those guys who wants to blame everything on the media, but I definitely think the sports media industry has done a disservice to baseball. It's not the only marketability problem, but it's a part of it. I love the NFL and NBA, but at least on the big sports media channels, like ESPN and Fox Sports, it seems like that's all they talk about. I think one platform that does a good job of balancing the sports is Yahoo Sports.
Starts inside those companies. They don't hire anyone who knows anything about baseball anymore. Hard to talk about it when nobody on your staff knows about it.
@@tubbyidk1474 The thing is that football is the number1 sport in the usa, and basketball is the most international of all of them, even baseball outside of like 8- 10countries is not that international
Also...basketball and football have huge college followings, and when a college player is drafted they can make an immediate impact. When a baseball player is drafted you don't normally see them in MLB for 3-4 years and the casual fan may forget that player even existed. College basketball and football fans like to see their guy make that immediate jump.
I think that baseball would help itself if they ended double elimination on college world series and went back to single elimination akin to Summer Koshien The format drama helps market the players and teams a lot better than double elimonatio
This people like a story of following someone from college to the pros. A huge part of Caitlin Clark's appeal is that plus the fact that she stayed with her hometown Iowa Hawkeyes instead of going to UConn and single handily made that school competitive. If she had gone to UConn she's just one of a dozen.
@@superninja252that would be cool but call me crazy We got to a march madness style chaos theory for college, and drop the NFHSAA for streaming middle school- high school sports
This is probably bias to some degree but I live in LA county/Orange County. You can’t go anywhere here without seeing Shohei Ohtani. He’s all over buildings, advertisements for the dodgers and just other companies that have stores within malls. New Balance commercials for him alone and a Porsche sponsorship too. Judge has a cologne deal also. I think you’re right about how MLB is less about the individual player compared to basketball or the NFL where one guy can control a game, but Shohei is probably the closest we’ll get to that in MLB. I will say MLB has done a better job since I’ve been born in trying to market their players and allowing for more individuality with equipment but it still lacks.
Baseball will never be able to overcome this issue until broadcasting rights are made less regional. It's too difficult for the casual or entry level fan to get into watching any broadcasts with the amount of blackouts.
Bro I gotta hop on sites like sports surge n streameast to watch the World Series cuz fox sports cost like 75 a month nd other alternatives aren’t much better, sometimes ppl be putting the game live on yt but then u gotta pay for it cuz they block the stream with some message saying u gotta click a link nd pay a little bit of money to watch it mlb really tryna make life impossible jus to watch anything
This is true. Gives baseball fans the opportunity to discover players from other teams and watch their gameplay. Chances are a person's favorite player is not on their favorite team. MLB viewership as a whole would increase significantly if they removed the blackout restrictions
Sorry to say as a big sports fans, I love every sport, but there’s a reason Baseball will never be Football or Basketball, the game is just boring to watch, Outfielders just stand around for like 85% of the game. Not enough action like most sports, it’s hard to consistently be good. The stats are too advanced for your average fan, meanwhile Basketball and Football have easy stats to understand that make people want to bet on it more.
It’s cuz ppl gotta play baseball n be in love with it nd know what’s going on between the pitcher and batter like I get excited when the pitcher throws a nasty pitch and strikes out one of the best batters of when a batter hits a home run like Freddie freeman hitting a grand slam in this years World Series game against the Yankees
It’s cuz ppl gotta play baseball n be in love with it nd know what’s going on between the pitcher and batter like I get excited when the pitcher throws a nasty pitch and strikes out one of the best batters of when a batter hits a home run like Freddie freeman hitting a grand slam in this years World Series game against the Yankees
Same problem with hockey. At least ESPN still considers MLB to be a major league. Anytime somone tries to mention hockey, it's basically shut down by the rest of the analysts. Only because they won't take the time to learn the sport (even though that is literally their job.)
They really don't talk about anything besides Football or Basketball anymore. I think the biggest problem is that nobody in the ESPN studio watches anything besides Football or Basketball. Try asking any of them about a recent Hockey or Baseball game and they will have no clue. Back in the day they watched and talked about all sports a lot more.
Will be kind of interesting to see what happens with the NBA on this front after Lebron and Curry retire because I can't think of any other players at the moment who have the same marketability or who transcend the game like they do.
Mlb’s wet dream in marketing should be that Shohei Ohtani next year pitches every 5 days and plays in the field (like he did in Japan) in every game he doesn’t pitch in. The Dodgers wouldn’t let him do that tho because of injury concerns imo.
One thing I noticed about baseball is how fans and media put so much emphasis on advanced statistics that casual fans just getting into it or catching a game here and there wouldn't know. my friends who don't watch baseball don't know or care about WRC+. Also the media and journalists when talking about baseball always seem to use silly or outdated terms when referring to aspects of the game. it might be just my personal problem but when I see articles referring to pitchers as "hurlers" or catchers as "backstops" or "behind the dish" it makes me cringe. baseball media and fans don't talk like normal people about the game so normal people don't know what they're talking about.
Ohtani's contract and subsequent scandal were stories that many non-baseball fans heard about. I think he has the potential to increase the popularity of baseball in the US.
I think he should try to communicate more in English. It seems that he speaks it fluently at this point so he doesn't need a translator. The fact that you barely see him speaking English creates a barrier between him and non Japanese fans tbh.
Latin players gladly learn the language and adapt to the community. Asian players, don’t really have much personality due to their culture, tend to keep themselves and don’t bother learning English. I think til this day Ichiro still relies on a translator.
I vividly remember when local antenna channels broadcasted the local pro teams (not just MLB, but also NBA, NHL, and even (in my case) the local [then non-MLS] soccer team) as recently as the 2000s. Today, you can only find them on dying cable channels, while the antenna channels are extremely generous with football (both pro and college) and will occasionally give you other leagues, but only if it’s a primetime slot/deep into the playoffs because it’s the national networks showing all of this. And that’s the thing, this is all symptomatic of local media’s waning influence.
Grew up in 2000s in New England. Everyone knew David Oritz and Gronk because of Dunkin Donuts commercials. Even Oritz get more mainstream commercials than active players
I think some of the unwritten rules of the game need to go the way of the dinosaur. If you look at games like the Caribbean Series, there's a lot of excitement and flare being portrayed. If baseball players love playing baseball, let them show it on the field in their own way. It's not going to solve all of the game's problems but it's a start
Here's the BIGGEST marketing problem: In 1965.....58% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball.....By 1985 it dropped to 32% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organzed baseball. In 2021 Only 7% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball......if boys don't play it, they won't follow it. Today it's about bandwagoners and rich corp box seats which fans have no loyalty year to year.
I don't necessarily think that they should, but it's clear that what the common sports fan wants is big personality, being unapologetic, rapid action, and viral moments while only paying attention to about half of the actual product. Think Tyreek Hill, Antonio Brown, Draymond, LeBron, Conor McGregor... the common man that doesn't inherently care about the craft of the sport just wants big, fast, and loud. That's not what baseball is unfortunately. Football and basketball provide both rapid action and have a lot of people playing that act like they want to be seen. Not a lot of baseball players openly act like they want to be seen, because I think a lot of them don't care that much. It's the nature of the sport. Baseball doesn't have any Kardashians, football and basketball do, and people that aren't innately fans of the sport itself want Kardashians. What the MLB needs is for players to want to talk on their own. Social media rants, in-season parties, outspoken individuals, scandals, locker room fights, jawing with fans in the stands, stars with dubious beliefs. They need the Tyreek Hills, but it has to come from the best players. Imagine if every team had a Nyjer Morgan and he was one of their best players.
I don't think increasing celebrating will necessarily have the effect people think. Think about how the hedonic treadmill works. The atmosphere at Caribbean games looks and feels insane until that's your new normal. Then you need the bigger high. How many NFL fans wouldn't be willing to trade their current mediocre running back for prime Barry Sanders because he never celebrated? Literally nobody wouldn't take that trade.
Up till 2021 or 2022 when they started letting players celebrate, I legitimately believed soccer would overtake baseball in popularity due to the lack of individuality and expression. We millennials are the future fans, season ticket holders and parents who will take the next generation of kids to games - we want our players to express themselves.
This has been my first season ever paying close attention to the MLB and I have to say it's been hard to get back into the NFL as a result. The amount of judgement calls that significantly impact every single NFL game makes it so frustrating to watch, especially after spending all summer watching baseball and only getting to complain about one (admittedly terrible) Hunter Wendlestedt obstruction call as well as some random called strikes that were off the plate.
Yeah, I'm a baseball/hockey guy; used to watch more football than I do now, but the pace of that sport is just draining at this point, and yeah, the amount of refball in the NFL is a big turn off.
I do agree with your point about baseball being less stricted on its unwritten rules. However, a crazy looking bat would be really distracting for a pitcher 😆
I mean locally, baseball stars are huge...but I agree that nationally baseball needs to market its stars better. This generation is probably its most talented in history and the MLB product is so much better...just wish there was more marketing
It's an amazing game. But the only problem is it is popular only in US, Japan, Cuba and DR. Furthermore, to play baseball you need to buy a ball, a bat, a glove, a helmet, etc.. and also you need to have diamond shaped pitch. All these financial complexities and equipment account for the failure to reach more markets as compred to soccer and basketball, beacuse all you need is a ball and a hoop/goal to play. But, one might make a case for Formula 1 as it has become quite popular. Baseball could do something like that where they make few big exclusive races/events each year to draw in crowds and get celebrities to attend each game....
It’s the people like Jeff Frye who are holding baseball back from becoming highly marketable. Pushing back on any high school kid celebration he sees, with the old man yells at cloud “back in my day”. Once the old heads realize it’s no longer their day, and they stop this push back, baseball will be much more marketable
"She gone". Sure Frye, what is your solution to grow the sport? More kids probably know of Bautista's bat flip than of DeGrom's historic 2018 campaign.
I'm not a fan of excessive celebrations in sports. I don't think there should be a mini celebration every time you get a first down in football. I don't think a baseball player should celebrate more than a quick prayer when they get a single, or the team action for an extra base hit. I can get behind yelling "Let's F*cking Go!" to your dug out when you get a home run and then doing the dug out celebration. But pimping out the bat flip, or mocking the opposing team is disrespectful and is going to inflame tempers and teach kids that it is okay to be disrespectful to your opponents, which is something I don't think should happen. I'm cool with personalized bats, and cleats, and even socks if you want to, so long as they are primarily in the secondary color of the uniform of the day. Just keep the celebrations small except for big moments and for your team, the Stoicism of baseball is a major part of its appeal.
multi billion dollar teams arent under marketed at all. the mlb isnt important because of any individual player. individuals dont make leagues great important or special
Ken Griffey Jr. Was the MOST POPULAR Player on the 1990's Because of Marketing! He had the Shoes, The Video Games, Movie Cameos (Little Big League) and many Popular Television Shows like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and much more. Cover of Wheaties Boxes, his Shoes and was a pop ICON for us kids in the 1990s. But if you look today, kids have no idea who any of these MLB Players are and they do not care at all. I have been a little coach for 8 years now, played baseball my whole life and in College and these current kids DO NOT CARE! It is now a father son sport and the father has to educate the kids on who these guys are. Nobody knows Aarond Judge, Juan Soto, Ohtani, Mookie Betts, DeWitt, Acuna they are non existent in America. Baseball needs a rehaul, nobody knows Bryce Harper, nobody cares about baseball in the USA it is a regional sport and thats it.
@@Lukeypookie-q4i Ask the average kid who Bryce Harper is, nobody knows him. Ask the average person on the street who is Mike Trout or Bryce Harper they will not know. But if you ask them who Kobe, Jordan, LeBron they will know. Ask them do they know Brady they will know.
My opinion. I feel baseball is a hard sport to develop a big personality for marketing. Its a tough game to be consistently great and have a cocky/show boating/electric personality and trying not to slump. Baseball is a humbling sport for sure. The best thing i can see being the biggest entertainer is seeing that baseball nearly hitting a bird in the sky landing outside in the parking lot of the stadium. The noise the crowds make is for sure heard. I believe the pitch clock has made a significant improvement on crowd engagement because its not 10 minutes per bat or 3 - 4 hour games anymore. (there is my 2 cents)
Honestly...watching this video...I think we live in too fragmented a society to have many universal stars. The 20th Century is weird, and I think we have to realize this. Baseball doesn't have a Babe Ruth...but no single athlete currently is as big as Babe Ruth was in the 20s and 30s. That includes Mahomes. And as much as basketball produces superstars. Magic/Bird/and especially MJ's stardom dwarfs everybody else's except for LeBron (and he's almost retired). Beyond sports...the reason Taylor Swift's dominance is breathtaking is because she's reaching the heights of celebrity that Madonna, Prince, and Springsteen did *at the same time* in the 80's. Taylor's popularity still doesn't touch Beatlemania or Elvis When was the last time you saw a movie or a TV without understanding the premise, but solely because of a popular actor was in it? That happened ALL the time in the 20th Century.
Agree there’s no one single thread of culture that encompasses everyone and everything. Look at movies and how no one is really a movie star. The millennials of this era might be the last main stream stars that your grandma and your little cousin in 2nd might recognize but 15 years down the road ishowspeed might be the biggest draw in all of entertainment but will be a fraction of a star in the 20th century
Here's the BIGGEST marketing problem: In 1965.....58% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball.....By 1985 it dropped to 32% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organzed baseball. In 2021 Only 7% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball......if boys don't play it, they won't follow it. Today it's about bandwagoners and rich corp box seats which fans have no loyalty year to year.
@aron4117 networks promote franchises they own vs actors they have to pay. That's more profitable even if tickets sold is down vs 20 years ago. MLB pretends they care about marketability but it's better for their bottom line to treat the players like interchangeable pawns. Broadcasting rights make it worthwhile even if fan engagement is lower.
Might just be built for different audiences, I love team sports that emphasizes the team aspect and the star aspect is easily my least favorite part of the NBA. I'm a Kings fan, we're a good team(West just stacked) without any true superstar and I like watching them because it leads to a lot of passing and ball movement, we have ~4-5 guys that can carry on a given night but it's not a nightly thing and its not the same guy doing it the same way. That said that style without a super star is unlikely to win a championships and obviously the most fun you can have with any sport is watching your team win it all.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel messi are not only the two most followed athletes on instagram...they are simply the most followed people on instagram in the entire world. They are on a different league than Lebron let alone baseball players.
Yeah football is a worldwide thing. I returned to my country after studying in US and I don’t think the USA understands how big football is in a lot of countries. Generations of kids playing for the schools/clubs and with friends etc
Cuz the seasons 162 fucking games long, For what reason? College baseball is hype asf and they only pay 56 games. The season dragsss on wayyy too long to keep following it
Exactly. And less games would make them random games in the middle of summer more important and bearable to sit through long games since stakes are higher.
What about pitchers? They are impactful and on screen half the game. They also have a large influence on the outcome. Sure they pitch once a week but football also plays once a week
It's always been a very local sport. Like, I watch my team so much....I don't have it in me to watch other games. And unlike say Football, where your team only plays once a week and you don't have that fatigue to watch other games.
@@gabrielgarcia7554 Yes, it aged well, since you seem to be the only pundit in the world who thinks that a player's worth is measured by a couple of games.
There is also an argument to be made for how internationally recieved Baseball is. Like, sure there are a few countries like Japan, where Baseball is really relevant but compared to the NFL Baseball is an absolute no riser in Europe. But ghe NFL is the new trending sport in an entire continent, how?
Before I fully watch the viseo my guess to why they have a marketing problem is because all I ever see now is otani and the dodgers I barely see any marketing for other teams unless it local ( for me it's the mariners ) or if there's a quote on quote rivalry game like the Yankees vs redsox
Great video. I'd love to see you make a video like this on ice hockey as well. Connor McDavid is the best hockey player since Gretzky and Lemieux yet hardly anybody outside of hockey knows him.
One team that I think does a good job with marketing is the Mets. They make going to citifield an experience, especially if the Mets are winning. They also lean into the fanfare a lot with the players. For example, Jose Iglesias with his song “OMG” earlier this summer, and with the other players being interesting to watch. They even marketed the team with the Grimace Shake when the Mets kept winning. So I think it can really depend on the teams when it comes to marketing.
MLB should starting marketing teams instead of players no matter where you go in world you know the Yankee symbol we need to do that for the other teams
Watched baseball with my dad and brothers growing up - orioles was our team - they were bad for so long - we stopped watching - watch nationals a little bit - but I find baseball way too boring now - only game I watch faithfully is European/int’l soccer - that is the most fun sport to watch by far…
Yeah honestly I think that is a very simple but big part of the problem. Baseball just isn't as fun to watch as some of the other sports (for the average sports viewer, obviously there is a minority who loves baseball) and since that goes to the core of how the sport works I'm not sure that's something you can "fix". All you can do is make small adjustments to make it a bit more entertaining, but at its core baseball just isn't as fun for most people.
The personality is there, the problem is MLB media doesn’t promote the right thing..they’re on the right track but they need to speed up the game more…stop crying about calls, having managers “talk” in NBA when lebron cries the play just keeps going…the bat is a good idea but only like 6 inches above the barrel so the hitting zone still plain.
I don't understand why US sports doesn't focus more on the regionalism and tribalism of rooting for specific teams than just marketing big name stars. I'm originally from the KC area and it's been so amazing to see the success of the Chiefs in recent years, but I don't just want that boiled down to Mahomes and Kelce being goats. No, I follow them because I love the team fundamentally and what it means to put Kansas on the map. Especially with how old head and team focused baseball is that's really what they should focus on in marketing.
I was just thinking this the other day. When I go on a baseball players IG they barely have 200k followers. Only Judge & Sho got millions of followers. Compared to NBA/NFL players with bench players that have millions of followers and are followed by other celebrities.
The funniest part is, im brazilian, and I can name at least five major NFL teams and ten big players-even though we don’t really care about (american) football. With the NBA, it’s even better: we know names, teams, big moments, and some of the biggest rivalries. I mean, I can even name Wayne Gretzky, which makes me more knowledgeable about hockey (even if I don’t remember the league’s name). But I can’t name a SINGLE person in baseball-no players, no moments. Weirdly, we grew up consuming a lot of U.S. culture. A big part of our TV was U.S. productions with subs/dubs, but baseball never made an impact. Maybe I’d recognize the New York Yankees and LA Dodgers, it seems like the only teams that were ever the team some romcom protagonist was gonna be a fan.
one thing that could help is in games where someone is on base and a ball goes to an outfielder, instead of zooming in on the fielder it should zoom back so you can see the runner, and the full throw to get them out.... its like seeing a qb throwing the ball and seeing a cb or safety try to take it.. but in mlb you just see the last 5 ft
Cricket doesn't have this problem, since when you bat, you can keep batting until you are eliminated, you can theoretically bat for the entire game with a partner batter.
Honestly I’ve always been a soccer fan and never really been interested in nba or football. But lately I’ve been eyeing baseball one of the things that attracted me to the sport is the astros since it kind of revived baseball in Houston and the international games were you had Japan vs USA those were cool since you represent a country. And this season I’ve been keeping up with it and the storyline looks great I 100% gonna watch the World Series.
5:57 the closest thing to WAR in basketball is VARP, Value Above Replacement Player. Is how much better a starter is than a scrub. Win shares measures how valuable the player actually is.
Maybe baseball could take advantage of the fact that every pitcher and every hitter get their name on screen whenever they go out to the mound/home plate, I'm a football fan and I find it very hard to identify most players but with baseball you can easily learn a lineup after a game because every player gets the spotlight for a while
Great video in my opinion one issue with mlb is that thier casual fans are only interested in thier local teams thats where most of the viewership comes from in baseball a lot of those fans are probably not going to watch two other teams that are not thier local team. With football the superbowl has many casual fans that will watch it and alot of them dnt even watch football buts it's marketing as a big event. With tge world series primarily only real baseball fans will watch it if it's two teams that are not local to the causal fans they probably won't watch the world series
As a lifelong MLB fan since the early 80’s, the sport did 3 things that had collateral damage we see today. 1. The large market vs small market problems has caused it to become a regional game. MLB is not an event anymore on a national level, so the players don’t become stars outside the fanbase. Most fans stop watching once their team is eliminated. Then you have fanbases like the Marlins, Rays, A’s, Pirates, etc where they can’t compete so you never build solid fanbases there. Baseball doesn’t give the opportunity for these players to appeal outside their market. 2. The Steroid era ruined the one thing MLB had over any sport: The Record Book. Aaron Judge is on pace to hit 60 Homeruns again nobody cares outside of Baseball. Ohtani is on pace for a 50/50 season and nobody cares outside of Baseball. These used to be MAJOR stories that dominated the sports news cycle everyday but the record book got tainted, and the mythology is gone from the sport. 3. The devaluation of the starting pitcher. MLB could sell a regular season or playoff game by a pitching matchup alone. Gooden vs Valenzuela, Ryan vs Carlton, Pedro vs Clemens, Maddux vs Johnson, Seaver etc. You knew these guys were pitching atleast 8 innings, probably a complete game. The only pitchers they talk about today is who is getting Tommy John surgery next. MLB was shortsighted in the 90’s and continue today by only appealing to the local fans. They have expanded the playoffs, interleague play, universal DH, and ratings continue to decrease every year. But the Yankees, RedSox and Dodgers sell out so the bottom line is good. The problem is they are in their own world where nobody outside of it really cares.
I agree with most of what you said, except for your first point. The small market vs large market narrative in baseball is completely over exaggerated. When compared to the NFL and NBA, it is just wrong to say that baseball has less teams that can compete. In fact, since the turn of the century there have been 16 different MLB teams that have won at least one World Series. In that same time span the NFL has had 13 teams win at least one Super Bowl, and the NBA has had 11 teams win at least one NBA Finals. Put another way, over the last 24 years 53% of all MLB teams won a championship, compared to 41% and 37% of teams that won a championship in the NFL and NBA respectively. Which brings me to what I believe the number one marketing problem MLB has, and that is that in the NFL and NBA having a top superstar or elite player or two on your roster is absolutely vital to any hopes of success. If an NFL or NBA team has just one or two superstars at premiere positions then it’s a virtual guarantee that that team will be a playoff team at the very least - and having those superstars regularly in the postseason when the whole country is watching is a huge marketing win by itself. In baseball though having elite superstars on the roster guarantees nothing. Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout are two of the best players of the past 50 years and played together in their primes for 6 seasons, but since baseball is inherently not a superstar driven sport most casual observers never even saw them play outside of in some random regular season highlight clips. And I‘m not even sure that this is a “problem” for baseball since a big reason why many fans are attracted to the sport in the first place is that success depends on a team’s entire roster being solid rather than one or two superstars doing almost all of the heavy lifting.
I will push back a little on the first point-The A's and Rays don't have large payrolls, but are generally well-run (the "A's moving to Vegas" disaster notwithstanding), and are competitive more years than not. Even the Marlins had a good year last year (just don't talk about this year or the next 3-4). Pirates are improving, but ownership will most likely ruin it. So really, you have 4 disaster franchises in MLB-the aforementioned Marlins and Pirates, along with the Angels and White Sox. Every major sports league has its bottom-feeders though: The NFL has tbe Jets, Panthers, Jags and (historically) the Browns and Lions. The NBA has the Pistons, Nets, Clippers, Wizards, and Hornets. The NHL has the Blue Jackets, Sabres, and more historically, the Canucks, Maple Leafs, and even the defending champ Panthers. That last example does well to prove that even the worst teams are one GM hire away from a good few drafts in a row, and relevance, which is a beautiful thing. Sadly, this turnaround is slow in baseball especially, because even if you select the right players, they aren't going to hit the show for 3-4 years most of the time, and then need time (in most cases) to develop as big-league hitters. Compound this with the fact that owners are just as attention-span starved as your average teenage tiktok user, perhaps even more so, and often a good GM doesn't have time to build a good team in baseball. And there really is no good way to go about fixing this, players need time to develop in the minors, but owners gonna owner even when the GM does a seemingly good job.
Also players built HOF careers with one team. Tony Gwynn, Robin Yount, Kirby Puckett, George Brett. Now they’ll end up in Dodger blue or Yankee pinstripes
@@UncleJunSushiok, but any team in the nba and nfl can theoretically win a title within a few years time. Most teams in mlb that aren’t big markets will never have a chance to win. The mariners, Rockies, and brewers for example will never win a World Series, but those cities enjoy plenty of success in every other sport. Baseball is dominated by big markets like nyc, la, Dallas, Philadelphia, Houston, Atlanta etc. most of America doesn’t have a chance to watch their favorite teams win. If you live in Colorado or Seattle why watch baseball when you know that your team will never be able to compete? At the same time your teams in other leagues are always competitive.
6:09 - you can take this even further using VORP, which is another player value that becomes WAR when multiplied by 2.7. The highest single season WAR was Michael Jordan with 33.669. That effectively means that out of the 50 games the bulls won in 87-88, MJ was entirely responsible for 2/3s of them!
I’d still love to be a baseball player low key and rich and playing baseball also shout out this guy for using an old future song that reminded me of high school thanks bro also the gta wasted over mike trout was menacing
love this video and I would like to share some things too… reading some of these comments I agree that baseball has its limitations in the very nature of the sport. I am happy to see genuine changes in the game to not only bring more excitement but make the game catered more towards athleticism. Very soon there will have to be a decision made on the strike zone/umping vs auto zone, pitching mound distance with guys all throwing too much gas now for hitters and way too many pitching injuries, as well as the big one no one likes to talk about is the length of the season and wear and tear on players… inevitably money speaks louder and as they pay players more there’s going to be more protection because ppl want to watch star players play not be injured. I also wish (I think it’s nearly impossible because of the injuries and money in baseball) that like soccer (football) there was multiple tournaments and things going on like Champions League etc… for those not yet aware baseball is spreading worldwide with many efforts and this could be a possibility in maybe the next 20/30 years. All in all, I objectively think that postseason baseball is one of the coolest sporting experiences you can watch up there with other sports but things like the WBC and Olympics should continue to be pursued by the best baseball athletes because that really did wonders (especially Japan winning 2023)
Baseball is the worst it's ever been. You just mentioned half the reasons in a video. When I was growing up, we all knew McGwire, Griffey, Sosa, Bonds, Piazza, Maddox, etc. Now I can barely name ten players who aren't on the Cardinals
This is part of why Ohtani has been good for the sport. Without him my grandma wouldn't know a single baseball player. They just don't make it mainstream anymore. Also why I tell all the old farts getting upset at all the attention Ohtani gets to shutup. Baseball needs this.
@@SuperCatacata baseball needs it, but they also need another 10 or 20 players who get hyped and talked about. All the attention on one guy gets boring. There's not much he can do that's gonna interest me if it's not done on a baseball field
It surely doesn't help when managers are taking out pitchers who have a no-hitter after 7 innings. In the old days, the pitcher would argue with the manager and refuse to leave the mound. It would make the news...no-hitter or not. Today, the soft pitcher says "OK", the team may end up with a combined no-hitter (that NOBODY cares about), and everyone forgets. As opposed to a pitcher going 9 innings and no-hitting a team himself. It used to be history...one reason you go to the park...the off-chance you'd see a perfect game or no hitter, or a strikeout record. No more. Baseball is killing itself.
Man, imagine a 56 game MLB season with no blackouts, that would be so cool! But they're instead so focused on selling MLBtv where you can watch the in-market teams every game.... Baseball needs to be more accessible! And if I pay for MLBtv I should be able to choose my team. A schedule would also help. Like football, thursday night, sunday and monday. Baseball should have Wednesday and Saturday with a primetime day. Individual achievement is cool and all, but i want to watch MY GUYS win it all
the individual pursuit of greatness is why i think track and field should be a much bigger sport than it is with a national league meet circuit in america and better tv rights for the international diamond league
The “slow” pace of baseball is beautiful, makes every homer or big hit feel so special. That awesome clutch moment that a player can do on his own essentially. I love it
no matter how good mike trout was, he could affect only 1/9 of at bats. no matter how good pedro martinez was, he can only affect 1/5 of team innings. meanwhile, patrick mahomes can pass to travis kelce all game long. so, like you said, i'm not sure mlb can completely solve that issue. maybe on the margins, like, once per game, a team can set their lineup to any batter they want one thing I've wanted is a postseason draft. so teams going to the postseason can take players from non-playoff teams. that would've solved the issue of trout or ohtani never being on the biggest games.
Postseason draft would be absolutely terrible for the players on the team that made the postseason. Imagine working your ass off every day, being a genuinely good player, and the dream comes true, your team makes the playoffs, only for your spot to be taken by someone who wasn’t even on your team. Save that shit for the All Star Game.
@@diegobrandomtg yeah, in the same way you can work your whole life to be in the majors, only for a prospect to come in some years later and they replace you The only players that have to worry about that are the ones that the team thought were the biggest weakness.
@@juancuelloespinosa Because that KILLS the competition, it would just be teams full of stars basically all star teams, now we don’t want that, what you’re asking for is to have a bunch of star players on 3-4 teams? Wow real fun! I like when things are more balanced
only thing I’d argue is the idea that mlb can’t solve the issue because of how the sport is. You only see players bat 3-5 times, but the same can be said when Ruth, Dimaggio, Mays, Mantle played. They weren’t batting more than 5x per game. So i definitely feel that baseballs issue is marketing and not really the game itself. Nfl for example, it’s lower scoring sport than mlb, games take almost an hour longer to complete, there are also way more commercials and “dead time” as well. Yet the nfl has been able to trick the average American to perceive it as a fast paced, high scoring sport. Don’t get me wrong I love watching nfl as well, but those are the numbers. MLB needs to do that. They’ve been trying with the rules changes last year but I think that should be a start not the end. New changes should focus on fixing the strikeout / three outcome hitters and also bring back the prominence of starting pitchers. And lastly, MLB has a gold mine with Ohtani, his two way contributions are a huge reason he’s by far the most marketable mlb player. His fame skyrocketed once he figured out the two way role. If mlb can be more open to two way players, that would give us some sort of equivalent to a qb or nba player who’s involved in the game so much more than everyone else. Obviously I have more to add but I think those are the most realistic changes that should happen in the next couple years. Things like moving the mound height / distance or a champions league style tournament with the top 4-8 leagues
MLB should have tapped more into the European Market, there is no reason why France and especially Spain do not have National Teams and with the NFL heavily diving into Europe, so it’s the point of no return for Baseball, and in the US, basketball has officially become the 2nd most popular sport
Its pretty weird to me as a Japanese person from Minnesota, baseball is Japan's national sport (yes, sumo is an argument but baseball has a bigger market) and you see stars of each team on commercials locally and most people who watch TV or youtube ads would know who they are, and its been a thing since TV became mainstream in Japan, you literally can find old commercials of Randy Bass shaving his iconic beard for a Gillette ad. And then i see i literally dont see any MLB players on american commercials and its super weird, because for example, "individualality repressed" metioned in the vid is also a thing in japan, even more infact, glove colors, bat colors etc all have rules for them. Honestly its just an MLB marketing problem the way i see it.
I think it all boils down to the unwritten rule, dont showboat and or showup your opponents, leaving players less boisterous. That and baseball is and always has been a regional sport, they tend to represent the heart of their cities, so they are huge where they play. unless someone is an absolute phenom and or someyhing new like a shohei ohtani being on credible as a pitcher and a batter, which doesnt happen anymore because the sport has been around for a loooobnnnggggg time so nothing new or big ever happens anymore amd without it people focus on their teams alone
Too much effort goes into complaining about the unwritten rules. If players celebrated constantly, that would not attract more fans that watch the games, which is part of the problem. It's like how no one watches the NFL or NBA to watch the celebrations. Look up "celebration compilations" in either the NFL or NBA and it has nowhere near the same number of views as hit compilations or dunk compilations. People just don't understand what makes baseball interesting, even casual fans and that's MLB's problem. Ohtani is one of the most popular players right now and he's not out there flipping his bat or anything, so that disproves the theory right there.
It’s 2024, showboating is allowed, we see it every singe day and night. Unwritten rules are a thing of the past, we know this because we see showboating every single day and night and pitchers no longer do a damn thing about it
@@Alexander_Grant dude, baseball is my favorite sport, im not talking about myself there, I'm talking about, like you said, the casual fans. I'm not trying to make excuses for them,
@@jasonmilly3320 of course unwritten rules are a thing of the past, for the most part... but having only recently started to be that way over the past 5-10 years, that leaves nearly 120 years where baseball was ruled by unwritten rules.
I think it would help to advertise those web jems and defensive plays, because those players who bat 4 times a game are going to be on the field for 9 innings
I think one of the biggest issue is that baseball players have to go through the Minor Leagues to be Show ready. In the NBA/NFL, fans can easily track a player from when they took up the sport until they get drafted to their respective league. College baseball and the MLB might as well be two different sports because a player has to go through the minor and learn to be a professional baseball player. The NBA/NFL already has college developing players for the league... I think MLB and College Baseball should do more aligning, but that'll mean the possible end of some parts of the Minor Leagues...
It’s already happening. Guys are getting called up to mlb so much quicker. Paul skenes and Wyatt Langford only spent like half a year in the minors, Jackson Holliday was playing high school baseball in 2022 & got called up this year.
The most exciting part of a game (a homerun) isn't celebrated unless it's a walk off. Other than that the players just run the bases, maybe pointing to the fans as they do so. The only team I've seen that's done any celebration regarding a normal home run are the Dodgers with the little hand wave as they past second. But that's it, and you could miss if as they don't do it for long. It's not like soccer or football where every goal or touchdown is celebrated (the exception being if it's scored with the team being in a massive deficit). There's also the fact that the TEAMS are more marketable than the players. Look at the Dodgers and Yankees - everyone knows their logo, but you'd be hard pressed to ask someone wearing a Yankee or Dodger cap who their favorite player is and get a response. With other sports like basketball, football, and soccer, people get a jersey because of a players name (Lebron, Messi, Brady, etc.) but with baseball people get a jersey from the Yankees and Dodgers because it's a recognizable franchise, not because of the name on the back.
The problem is, outside of Shohei and potentially Aaron Judge, no one in the United States knows MLB players unless they watch the sport. I think that’s the problem.
I would love it if America got to understand how cool Vinnie Pasquantino is
V I N N I E P
The Pasquatch
@@SRSMike MR. PASQUANOLLI
individuals are replaceable. especially in pro sports.
It’s sad that it’s not enough that you enjoy Vinnie.
I always thought catchers should be able to paint their helmets like in hockey. They’re the most visible player on a nightly basis and it would show some flare and personality
this is a cool idea!
God, I would love to see JT Realmuto paint his helmet to look like the Liberty Bell, or some nod to the city.
Expos catcher I forgot his name he used a goalie mask and painted the expos logo on it
Brian Schneider was the catcher name
I think Ryan Jeffers, the current Twins catcher, is using a hockey helmet and has a paint job on it for the city connect jerseys
Baseball also has a huge broadcasting problem. You can turn on TV on any Sunday in Fall and watch 12 different NFL or college football games, whereas baseball are often only showed on regional sports networks, or God forbid, blacked out behind Apple TV+ or a very specific TV package that may or may not be right for your region.
NFL also is a bit blackout out or in streaming services
Worst having Joe Buck commentary. I always like local commentators they have favor and mention local things team or player doing. While some just call the game and say “Yeah Mike Trout, he’s a good hitter”
It's not as huge as you think ESPN gives them a lot of view time
One of the biggest things is the direct impact of players from college to pros. In football and basketball they can go from being a great player in college directly to starting in the NFL/NBA where as in baseball (outside of specific outliers) it can take a couple years before the make MLB and by then their “name brand” that was created in college dissipates by the time they reach MLB
Facts that’s why I think skenes and Langford and crews to lesser extents have been so popular and cool vibes feeling😂
And to add on? Some of these kids don't need college. And when was the last time you followed the AA or AAA league to see their stars to follow their careers into the bigs? You probably don't unless you live in a town w a team
MLB has had a marketing problem since the Steroid Era. Judge, Ohtani, Betts, Harper, Trout & probably now Skenes & Witt too should be all over TV & Social Media ads but MLB keeps on shooting themselves in making terrible decisions on promoting the game.
they literally are all over the place. the teams they play for deserve the hype. this isnt one on one tennis
The only marketable one you named was ohtani
Here's the BIGGEST marketing problem: In 1965.....58% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball.....By 1985 it dropped to 32% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organzed baseball. In 2021 Only 7% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball......if boys don't play it, they won't follow it. Today it's about bandwagoners and rich corp box seats which fans have no loyalty year to year.
That’s why Ohtani the Gambler was “cleared” and being marketed as an “injured pitcher” making history. If he was really injured he would be playing in the minors
@@fabianavalos1386 well he is an injured pitcher recovering from elbow surgery, also he’s not pitching this season so why would he be in the minors
What helps soccer players a lot for marketability and overall popularity are all the different tournaments that occur within the full regular seasons. Messi got to play in the Champions League, Copa America, World Cup, the Copa Del Rey, among other tourneys while playing professionally in Spain, France, and the U.S.
MLB could really benefit their star players and the sport overall if they were to create an FA Cup-style tournament and allow the players to decorate their bats, cleats, gloves, and other accessories while competing in said multi-league tourney.
A national baseball cup competition with what teams? All the minor league teams are MLB affiliated
@@getdowncrazy916there are leagues in other countries bruv
@@MuttonErase He's talking about doing it in the USA which would be interesting but I don't think the owners would budge.
Lmaooo I don't get you're analogy lol, decorating accessories won't fix this
@@MuttonErase FA Cup is a national tournament comprising of ALL senior level English teams. What you're asking for is a Baseball version of the Champions League
I don't want to be one of those guys who wants to blame everything on the media, but I definitely think the sports media industry has done a disservice to baseball. It's not the only marketability problem, but it's a part of it. I love the NFL and NBA, but at least on the big sports media channels, like ESPN and Fox Sports, it seems like that's all they talk about. I think one platform that does a good job of balancing the sports is Yahoo Sports.
Starts inside those companies.
They don't hire anyone who knows anything about baseball anymore. Hard to talk about it when nobody on your staff knows about it.
it’s a cycle. they don’t showcase baseball so not as many people are interested in baseball, which gives even less reason to showcase baseball.
They treat the NHL, MLS, and NASCAR the same way. Disgraceful that a so-called "sports network" only covers two sports these days.
@@AlexMax2742Because the two leagues is a big draw...i mean in ncaa, college basketball in march and college football on winter most people cares...
@@tubbyidk1474 The thing is that football is the number1 sport in the usa, and basketball is the most international of all of them, even baseball outside of like 8- 10countries is not that international
Also...basketball and football have huge college followings, and when a college player is drafted they can make an immediate impact. When a baseball player is drafted you don't normally see them in MLB for 3-4 years and the casual fan may forget that player even existed. College basketball and football fans like to see their guy make that immediate jump.
I think that baseball would help itself if they ended double elimination on college world series and went back to single elimination akin to Summer Koshien
The format drama helps market the players and teams a lot better than double elimonatio
This people like a story of following someone from college to the pros. A huge part of Caitlin Clark's appeal is that plus the fact that she stayed with her hometown Iowa Hawkeyes instead of going to UConn and single handily made that school competitive. If she had gone to UConn she's just one of a dozen.
@@superninja252that would be cool but call me crazy
We got to a march madness style chaos theory for college,
and drop the NFHSAA for streaming middle school- high school sports
solution? *REMOVE the blackout restrictions*
"HURR no one watches teh games!!"
we literally CANT 😡
The games used to be broadcast over the air for free all you needed was a TV antenna
I totally agree with this, it makes literally no sense. Sports in general are incredibly difficult to watch legally in the USA.
This is probably bias to some degree but I live in LA county/Orange County. You can’t go anywhere here without seeing Shohei Ohtani. He’s all over buildings, advertisements for the dodgers and just other companies that have stores within malls. New Balance commercials for him alone and a Porsche sponsorship too. Judge has a cologne deal also. I think you’re right about how MLB is less about the individual player compared to basketball or the NFL where one guy can control a game, but Shohei is probably the closest we’ll get to that in MLB. I will say MLB has done a better job since I’ve been born in trying to market their players and allowing for more individuality with equipment but it still lacks.
He bet on baseball
@Attentionatlantanews8 I use to think the same thing but that seems incredibly unlikely. He really was swindled by Ippei; really sucks honestly.
Long live Baseball ⚾️
Baseball will never be able to overcome this issue until broadcasting rights are made less regional. It's too difficult for the casual or entry level fan to get into watching any broadcasts with the amount of blackouts.
Exactly. I would love to watch baseball, can only do it on YT tv I think.
Bro I gotta hop on sites like sports surge n streameast to watch the World Series cuz fox sports cost like 75 a month nd other alternatives aren’t much better, sometimes ppl be putting the game live on yt but then u gotta pay for it cuz they block the stream with some message saying u gotta click a link nd pay a little bit of money to watch it mlb really tryna make life impossible jus to watch anything
This is true. Gives baseball fans the opportunity to discover players from other teams and watch their gameplay. Chances are a person's favorite player is not on their favorite team. MLB viewership as a whole would increase significantly if they removed the blackout restrictions
@@NN-oz6rr true, I tried to watch the replay of the World Series game 3 dodger v Yankees but couldn’t cuz of the blackout restrictions
Sorry to say as a big sports fans, I love every sport, but there’s a reason Baseball will never be Football or Basketball, the game is just boring to watch, Outfielders just stand around for like 85% of the game. Not enough action like most sports, it’s hard to consistently be good. The stats are too advanced for your average fan, meanwhile Basketball and Football have easy stats to understand that make people want to bet on it more.
A truthful man
It’s cuz ppl gotta play baseball n be in love with it nd know what’s going on between the pitcher and batter like I get excited when the pitcher throws a nasty pitch and strikes out one of the best batters of when a batter hits a home run like Freddie freeman hitting a grand slam in this years World Series game against the Yankees
It’s cuz ppl gotta play baseball n be in love with it nd know what’s going on between the pitcher and batter like I get excited when the pitcher throws a nasty pitch and strikes out one of the best batters of when a batter hits a home run like Freddie freeman hitting a grand slam in this years World Series game against the Yankees
you legit watch more ad time them actual game time. every single time there’s so much ads
I blame ESPN the talking heads over there can spend twenty minutes talking about NFL/NBA but can't mention a MLB play to save their life
Same problem with hockey. At least ESPN still considers MLB to be a major league. Anytime somone tries to mention hockey, it's basically shut down by the rest of the analysts. Only because they won't take the time to learn the sport (even though that is literally their job.)
They really don't talk about anything besides Football or Basketball anymore.
I think the biggest problem is that nobody in the ESPN studio watches anything besides Football or Basketball. Try asking any of them about a recent Hockey or Baseball game and they will have no clue.
Back in the day they watched and talked about all sports a lot more.
@@limitless_pullsIt's this and the fact ESPN cut much of their MLB coverage in order to bring back the NHL games on their channels!
Facts, I wanna see segments about the MLB on ESPN, at least September and October.
That's cause most people are not interested in Baseball and Hockey.
Will be kind of interesting to see what happens with the NBA on this front after Lebron and Curry retire because I can't think of any other players at the moment who have the same marketability or who transcend the game like they do.
well, theres luka or anthony edwards...
Mlb’s wet dream in marketing should be that Shohei Ohtani next year pitches every 5 days and plays in the field (like he did in Japan) in every game he doesn’t pitch in. The Dodgers wouldn’t let him do that tho because of injury concerns imo.
The max they do is put Ohtani as DH
@@superninja252 which makes him into sort of a joke.
@@Parlimant_Strifeythe only joke is you
@@Parlimant_Strifeya great pitcher who dh’s every day and hits 40 bombs a season isn’t a joke and never will be 😂
@@alarrim29574 doesn't pitch this year. Has a low profile as a result. DHing doesn't get you much exposure with potential live or tv fans.
One thing I noticed about baseball is how fans and media put so much emphasis on advanced statistics that casual fans just getting into it or catching a game here and there wouldn't know. my friends who don't watch baseball don't know or care about WRC+. Also the media and journalists when talking about baseball always seem to use silly or outdated terms when referring to aspects of the game. it might be just my personal problem but when I see articles referring to pitchers as "hurlers" or catchers as "backstops" or "behind the dish" it makes me cringe. baseball media and fans don't talk like normal people about the game so normal people don't know what they're talking about.
Behind the dish is normal if you ask me
So true
Ohtani's contract and subsequent scandal were stories that many non-baseball fans heard about. I think he has the potential to increase the popularity of baseball in the US.
He already has
I think he should try to communicate more in English. It seems that he speaks it fluently at this point so he doesn't need a translator. The fact that you barely see him speaking English creates a barrier between him and non Japanese fans tbh.
@@mitonaarea5856 no it doesn’t lol what are you talking about
@@Jordan-hw7cq It does, you may not see someone blatantly say it but it does.
Latin players gladly learn the language and adapt to the community. Asian players, don’t really have much personality due to their culture, tend to keep themselves and don’t bother learning English. I think til this day Ichiro still relies on a translator.
I'd love to be able to watch my local MLB team every sunday for free like in the nfl. I think that would help the game
I vividly remember when local antenna channels broadcasted the local pro teams (not just MLB, but also NBA, NHL, and even (in my case) the local [then non-MLS] soccer team) as recently as the 2000s. Today, you can only find them on dying cable channels, while the antenna channels are extremely generous with football (both pro and college) and will occasionally give you other leagues, but only if it’s a primetime slot/deep into the playoffs because it’s the national networks showing all of this. And that’s the thing, this is all symptomatic of local media’s waning influence.
I remember in the 90s people who didn’t follow baseball still knew who Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were.
Grew up in 2000s in New England. Everyone knew David Oritz and Gronk because of Dunkin Donuts commercials. Even Oritz get more mainstream commercials than active players
It helped that players stayed their entire careers with one team.
I think some of the unwritten rules of the game need to go the way of the dinosaur. If you look at games like the Caribbean Series, there's a lot of excitement and flare being portrayed. If baseball players love playing baseball, let them show it on the field in their own way. It's not going to solve all of the game's problems but it's a start
Here's the BIGGEST marketing problem: In 1965.....58% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball.....By 1985 it dropped to 32% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organzed baseball. In 2021 Only 7% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball......if boys don't play it, they won't follow it. Today it's about bandwagoners and rich corp box seats which fans have no loyalty year to year.
WBC is fantastic exactly beacuse of the vibes everyone has
Just see Japan vs Mexico or how Ohtani vs Trout was hyped up by everyone
I don't necessarily think that they should, but it's clear that what the common sports fan wants is big personality, being unapologetic, rapid action, and viral moments while only paying attention to about half of the actual product. Think Tyreek Hill, Antonio Brown, Draymond, LeBron, Conor McGregor... the common man that doesn't inherently care about the craft of the sport just wants big, fast, and loud. That's not what baseball is unfortunately. Football and basketball provide both rapid action and have a lot of people playing that act like they want to be seen. Not a lot of baseball players openly act like they want to be seen, because I think a lot of them don't care that much. It's the nature of the sport. Baseball doesn't have any Kardashians, football and basketball do, and people that aren't innately fans of the sport itself want Kardashians.
What the MLB needs is for players to want to talk on their own. Social media rants, in-season parties, outspoken individuals, scandals, locker room fights, jawing with fans in the stands, stars with dubious beliefs. They need the Tyreek Hills, but it has to come from the best players. Imagine if every team had a Nyjer Morgan and he was one of their best players.
@@parkercrossland410 As a Diamondbacks fan, the last thing I want to think about is Nyjer Morgan for obvious reasons.
I don't think increasing celebrating will necessarily have the effect people think. Think about how the hedonic treadmill works. The atmosphere at Caribbean games looks and feels insane until that's your new normal. Then you need the bigger high.
How many NFL fans wouldn't be willing to trade their current mediocre running back for prime Barry Sanders because he never celebrated? Literally nobody wouldn't take that trade.
Up till 2021 or 2022 when they started letting players celebrate, I legitimately believed soccer would overtake baseball in popularity due to the lack of individuality and expression.
We millennials are the future fans, season ticket holders and parents who will take the next generation of kids to games - we want our players to express themselves.
Soccer is obviously already more popular than baseball.
You’re so real putting Percocet and stripper joint in the background had me head bopping while listening to
This has been my first season ever paying close attention to the MLB and I have to say it's been hard to get back into the NFL as a result. The amount of judgement calls that significantly impact every single NFL game makes it so frustrating to watch, especially after spending all summer watching baseball and only getting to complain about one (admittedly terrible) Hunter Wendlestedt obstruction call as well as some random called strikes that were off the plate.
That's me but in relation to the NHL. I find MLB more interesting to follow at this point
Yeah, I'm a baseball/hockey guy; used to watch more football than I do now, but the pace of that sport is just draining at this point, and yeah, the amount of refball in the NFL is a big turn off.
Welcome. MLB is the best
I do agree with your point about baseball being less stricted on its unwritten rules. However, a crazy looking bat would be really distracting for a pitcher 😆
I mean locally, baseball stars are huge...but I agree that nationally baseball needs to market its stars better. This generation is probably its most talented in history and the MLB product is so much better...just wish there was more marketing
As a non American who pays attention let me be the one to tell you the sport is the problem
It's an amazing game. But the only problem is it is popular only in US, Japan, Cuba and DR. Furthermore, to play baseball you need to buy a ball, a bat, a glove, a helmet, etc.. and also you need to have diamond shaped pitch. All these financial complexities and equipment account for the failure to reach more markets as compred to soccer and basketball, beacuse all you need is a ball and a hoop/goal to play. But, one might make a case for Formula 1 as it has become quite popular. Baseball could do something like that where they make few big exclusive races/events each year to draw in crowds and get celebrities to attend each game....
It’s the people like Jeff Frye who are holding baseball back from becoming highly marketable. Pushing back on any high school kid celebration he sees, with the old man yells at cloud “back in my day”. Once the old heads realize it’s no longer their day, and they stop this push back, baseball will be much more marketable
"She gone". Sure Frye, what is your solution to grow the sport? More kids probably know of Bautista's bat flip than of DeGrom's historic 2018 campaign.
I'm not a fan of excessive celebrations in sports. I don't think there should be a mini celebration every time you get a first down in football. I don't think a baseball player should celebrate more than a quick prayer when they get a single, or the team action for an extra base hit. I can get behind yelling "Let's F*cking Go!" to your dug out when you get a home run and then doing the dug out celebration. But pimping out the bat flip, or mocking the opposing team is disrespectful and is going to inflame tempers and teach kids that it is okay to be disrespectful to your opponents, which is something I don't think should happen. I'm cool with personalized bats, and cleats, and even socks if you want to, so long as they are primarily in the secondary color of the uniform of the day. Just keep the celebrations small except for big moments and for your team, the Stoicism of baseball is a major part of its appeal.
multi billion dollar teams arent under marketed at all. the mlb isnt important because of any individual player. individuals dont make leagues great important or special
He's just a former player on twitter, you really think he's holding the game back?
*People* like Jeff Frye. Dude's just a particularly obnoxious example in a sea of perpetually butthurt, regressive crybabies.
Ken Griffey Jr. Was the MOST POPULAR Player on the 1990's Because of Marketing! He had the Shoes, The Video Games, Movie Cameos (Little Big League) and many Popular Television Shows like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and much more. Cover of Wheaties Boxes, his Shoes and was a pop ICON for us kids in the 1990s. But if you look today, kids have no idea who any of these MLB Players are and they do not care at all. I have been a little coach for 8 years now, played baseball my whole life and in College and these current kids DO NOT CARE! It is now a father son sport and the father has to educate the kids on who these guys are. Nobody knows Aarond Judge, Juan Soto, Ohtani, Mookie Betts, DeWitt, Acuna they are non existent in America. Baseball needs a rehaul, nobody knows Bryce Harper, nobody cares about baseball in the USA it is a regional sport and thats it.
He was cool, it’s that simple.
People knew Bryce Harper
@@Lukeypookie-q4i Ask the average kid who Bryce Harper is, nobody knows him. Ask the average person on the street who is Mike Trout or Bryce Harper they will not know. But if you ask them who Kobe, Jordan, LeBron they will know. Ask them do they know Brady they will know.
My opinion. I feel baseball is a hard sport to develop a big personality for marketing. Its a tough game to be consistently great and have a cocky/show boating/electric personality and trying not to slump. Baseball is a humbling sport for sure. The best thing i can see being the biggest entertainer is seeing that baseball nearly hitting a bird in the sky landing outside in the parking lot of the stadium. The noise the crowds make is for sure heard. I believe the pitch clock has made a significant improvement on crowd engagement because its not 10 minutes per bat or 3 - 4 hour games anymore. (there is my 2 cents)
Honestly...watching this video...I think we live in too fragmented a society to have many universal stars. The 20th Century is weird, and I think we have to realize this.
Baseball doesn't have a Babe Ruth...but no single athlete currently is as big as Babe Ruth was in the 20s and 30s. That includes Mahomes.
And as much as basketball produces superstars. Magic/Bird/and especially MJ's stardom dwarfs everybody else's except for LeBron (and he's almost retired).
Beyond sports...the reason Taylor Swift's dominance is breathtaking is because she's reaching the heights of celebrity that Madonna, Prince, and Springsteen did *at the same time* in the 80's. Taylor's popularity still doesn't touch Beatlemania or Elvis
When was the last time you saw a movie or a TV without understanding the premise, but solely because of a popular actor was in it? That happened ALL the time in the 20th Century.
Agree there’s no one single thread of culture that encompasses everyone and everything. Look at movies and how no one is really a movie star. The millennials of this era might be the last main stream stars that your grandma and your little cousin in 2nd might recognize but 15 years down the road ishowspeed might be the biggest draw in all of entertainment but will be a fraction of a star in the 20th century
@@aron4117I actually might see a future (give it 10% chance) in which social media implodes, and we see a snap back to monoculture.
Here's the BIGGEST marketing problem: In 1965.....58% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball.....By 1985 it dropped to 32% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organzed baseball. In 2021 Only 7% of boys ages 8 to 11 played organized baseball......if boys don't play it, they won't follow it. Today it's about bandwagoners and rich corp box seats which fans have no loyalty year to year.
(Too?) much entertainment options and fragmentation of the media landscape.
@aron4117 networks promote franchises they own vs actors they have to pay. That's more profitable even if tickets sold is down vs 20 years ago. MLB pretends they care about marketability but it's better for their bottom line to treat the players like interchangeable pawns. Broadcasting rights make it worthwhile even if fan engagement is lower.
Might just be built for different audiences, I love team sports that emphasizes the team aspect and the star aspect is easily my least favorite part of the NBA. I'm a Kings fan, we're a good team(West just stacked) without any true superstar and I like watching them because it leads to a lot of passing and ball movement, we have ~4-5 guys that can carry on a given night but it's not a nightly thing and its not the same guy doing it the same way. That said that style without a super star is unlikely to win a championships and obviously the most fun you can have with any sport is watching your team win it all.
Well the Celtics just won without a superstar. I would say the superstar in the nba is becoming less and less relevant
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel messi are not only the two most followed athletes on instagram...they are simply the most followed people on instagram in the entire world. They are on a different league than Lebron let alone baseball players.
Yeah football is a worldwide thing. I returned to my country after studying in US and I don’t think the USA understands how big football is in a lot of countries. Generations of kids playing for the schools/clubs and with friends etc
Baseball needs more characters and MLB needs to market those characters
MLB needs to end the blackouts! I live in Las Vegas and the A’s, Giants, Angels, Dodgers, Padres, and Diamondbacks are all blacked out.
Cuz the seasons 162 fucking games long, For what reason? College baseball is hype asf and they only pay 56 games. The season dragsss on wayyy too long to keep following it
Exactly. And less games would make them random games in the middle of summer more important and bearable to sit through long games since stakes are higher.
What about pitchers? They are impactful and on screen half the game. They also have a large influence on the outcome. Sure they pitch once a week but football also plays once a week
They aren't pitching every game, and they are usually off half the game. The game just has too much down time for players in one game.
unless it’s a reliever, starting pitchers don’t pitch every day. it’s usually 4-5 days they’ll pitch
It's always been a very local sport.
Like, I watch my team so much....I don't have it in me to watch other games.
And unlike say Football, where your team only plays once a week and you don't have that fatigue to watch other games.
hockey has a similar issue where most players aren't allowed to let their personality. since the focus is more on the team than the players themselves
Maybe that's the problem. I've never considered Mookie Betts to be an "elite" player just because he had a couple of good seasons.
This aged well.
@@gabrielgarcia7554 Yes, it aged well, since you seem to be the only pundit in the world who thinks that a player's worth is measured by a couple of games.
150 Most marketable athletes list came out today and Shohei Ohtani was the only baseball player at #88. That says something.
Same with hockey in America it's has bad marketing too
There is also an argument to be made for how internationally recieved Baseball is. Like, sure there are a few countries like Japan, where Baseball is really relevant but compared to the NFL Baseball is an absolute no riser in Europe. But ghe NFL is the new trending sport in an entire continent, how?
baseball has a mlb problem
Before I fully watch the viseo my guess to why they have a marketing problem is because all I ever see now is otani and the dodgers I barely see any marketing for other teams unless it local ( for me it's the mariners ) or if there's a quote on quote rivalry game like the Yankees vs redsox
The NFL staged the Kelce Swift thing as a marketing Ploy, they paid them both. It's actually genius if you think about it
Great video. I'd love to see you make a video like this on ice hockey as well. Connor McDavid is the best hockey player since Gretzky and Lemieux yet hardly anybody outside of hockey knows him.
One team that I think does a good job with marketing is the Mets. They make going to citifield an experience, especially if the Mets are winning. They also lean into the fanfare a lot with the players. For example, Jose Iglesias with his song “OMG” earlier this summer, and with the other players being interesting to watch. They even marketed the team with the Grimace Shake when the Mets kept winning. So I think it can really depend on the teams when it comes to marketing.
1:28 Can't believe they used the Sopranos theme for this segment! Wow!
At a time where people really getting dumber it makes sense baseball is on the decline
MLB should starting marketing teams instead of players no matter where you go in world you know the Yankee symbol we need to do that for the other teams
I think David Ortiz was the last great crossover star. He starred in a Super Bowl car ad with other Boston celebs.
He also in Miller lite commercial with Jorge posada
Watched baseball with my dad and brothers growing up - orioles was our team - they were bad for so long - we stopped watching - watch nationals a little bit - but I find baseball way too boring now - only game I watch faithfully is European/int’l soccer - that is the most fun sport to watch by far…
Yeah honestly I think that is a very simple but big part of the problem. Baseball just isn't as fun to watch as some of the other sports (for the average sports viewer, obviously there is a minority who loves baseball) and since that goes to the core of how the sport works I'm not sure that's something you can "fix". All you can do is make small adjustments to make it a bit more entertaining, but at its core baseball just isn't as fun for most people.
Soccer games are on tv now more than baseball games and I am here for it, but we can’t let baseball fall off
The personality is there, the problem is MLB media doesn’t promote the right thing..they’re on the right track but they need to speed up the game more…stop crying about calls, having managers “talk” in NBA when lebron cries the play just keeps going…the bat is a good idea but only like 6 inches above the barrel so the hitting zone still plain.
I don't understand why US sports doesn't focus more on the regionalism and tribalism of rooting for specific teams than just marketing big name stars. I'm originally from the KC area and it's been so amazing to see the success of the Chiefs in recent years, but I don't just want that boiled down to Mahomes and Kelce being goats. No, I follow them because I love the team fundamentally and what it means to put Kansas on the map. Especially with how old head and team focused baseball is that's really what they should focus on in marketing.
I was just thinking this the other day. When I go on a baseball players IG they barely have 200k followers. Only Judge & Sho got millions of followers. Compared to NBA/NFL players with bench players that have millions of followers and are followed by other celebrities.
The funniest part is, im brazilian, and I can name at least five major NFL teams and ten big players-even though we don’t really care about (american) football. With the NBA, it’s even better: we know names, teams, big moments, and some of the biggest rivalries. I mean, I can even name Wayne Gretzky, which makes me more knowledgeable about hockey (even if I don’t remember the league’s name). But I can’t name a SINGLE person in baseball-no players, no moments. Weirdly, we grew up consuming a lot of U.S. culture. A big part of our TV was U.S. productions with subs/dubs, but baseball never made an impact. Maybe I’d recognize the New York Yankees and LA Dodgers, it seems like the only teams that were ever the team some romcom protagonist was gonna be a fan.
one thing that could help is in games where someone is on base and a ball goes to an outfielder, instead of zooming in on the fielder it should zoom back so you can see the runner, and the full throw to get them out.... its like seeing a qb throwing the ball and seeing a cb or safety try to take it.. but in mlb you just see the last 5 ft
Cricket doesn't have this problem, since when you bat, you can keep batting until you are eliminated, you can theoretically bat for the entire game with a partner batter.
Gunnar Henderson has a Scooby Doo bat and does a wicked impression of the cartoon character. How can you not seize THAT story?!?
I'm from Baltimore and barely know our players
At least in the 2010s I knew our guys
@@harbour08 Gunnar’s fun. Santander has some good things to say. They can go speak at events.
Thanks!
thank YOU!
Great song choice for the background music. The Percocet and Stripper Joint is a classic
Something about the NHL and MLB forgetting about the 1990s and 2000s.
Dawson Wright made an excellent video a couple of years ago about the lack of marketing by mlb
With the amount of paul skeenes stuff i see from the mlb one would think the pirates are good 💀
Honestly I’ve always been a soccer fan and never really been interested in nba or football. But lately I’ve been eyeing baseball one of the things that attracted me to the sport is the astros since it kind of revived baseball in Houston and the international games were you had Japan vs USA those were cool since you represent a country. And this season I’ve been keeping up with it and the storyline looks great I 100% gonna watch the World Series.
Same. I don't care for NFL or NBA. MLB actually has my attention
5:57 the closest thing to WAR in basketball is VARP, Value Above Replacement Player.
Is how much better a starter is than a scrub.
Win shares measures how valuable the player actually is.
Maybe baseball could take advantage of the fact that every pitcher and every hitter get their name on screen whenever they go out to the mound/home plate, I'm a football fan and I find it very hard to identify most players but with baseball you can easily learn a lineup after a game because every player gets the spotlight for a while
Great video in my opinion one issue with mlb is that thier casual fans are only interested in thier local teams thats where most of the viewership comes from in baseball a lot of those fans are probably not going to watch two other teams that are not thier local team. With football the superbowl has many casual fans that will watch it and alot of them dnt even watch football buts it's marketing as a big event. With tge world series primarily only real baseball fans will watch it if it's two teams that are not local to the causal fans they probably won't watch the world series
As a lifelong MLB fan since the early 80’s, the sport did 3 things that had collateral damage we see today.
1. The large market vs small market problems has caused it to become a regional game. MLB is not an event anymore on a national level, so the players don’t become stars outside the fanbase. Most fans stop watching once their team is eliminated. Then you have fanbases like the Marlins, Rays, A’s, Pirates, etc where they can’t compete so you never build solid fanbases there. Baseball doesn’t give the opportunity for these players to appeal outside their market.
2. The Steroid era ruined the one thing MLB had over any sport: The Record Book. Aaron Judge is on pace to hit 60 Homeruns again nobody cares outside of Baseball. Ohtani is on pace for a 50/50 season and nobody cares outside of Baseball. These used to be MAJOR stories that dominated the sports news cycle everyday but the record book got tainted, and the mythology is gone from the sport.
3. The devaluation of the starting pitcher. MLB could sell a regular season or playoff game by a pitching matchup alone. Gooden vs Valenzuela, Ryan vs Carlton, Pedro vs Clemens, Maddux vs Johnson, Seaver etc. You knew these guys were pitching atleast 8 innings, probably a complete game. The only pitchers they talk about today is who is getting Tommy John surgery next.
MLB was shortsighted in the 90’s and continue today by only appealing to the local fans. They have expanded the playoffs, interleague play, universal DH, and ratings continue to decrease every year. But the Yankees, RedSox and Dodgers sell out so the bottom line is good. The problem is they are in their own world where nobody outside of it really cares.
I agree with most of what you said, except for your first point. The small market vs large market narrative in baseball is completely over exaggerated. When compared to the NFL and NBA, it is just wrong to say that baseball has less teams that can compete. In fact, since the turn of the century there have been 16 different MLB teams that have won at least one World Series. In that same time span the NFL has had 13 teams win at least one Super Bowl, and the NBA has had 11 teams win at least one NBA Finals. Put another way, over the last 24 years 53% of all MLB teams won a championship, compared to 41% and 37% of teams that won a championship in the NFL and NBA respectively.
Which brings me to what I believe the number one marketing problem MLB has, and that is that in the NFL and NBA having a top superstar or elite player or two on your roster is absolutely vital to any hopes of success. If an NFL or NBA team has just one or two superstars at premiere positions then it’s a virtual guarantee that that team will be a playoff team at the very least - and having those superstars regularly in the postseason when the whole country is watching is a huge marketing win by itself. In baseball though having elite superstars on the roster guarantees nothing. Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout are two of the best players of the past 50 years and played together in their primes for 6 seasons, but since baseball is inherently not a superstar driven sport most casual observers never even saw them play outside of in some random regular season highlight clips.
And I‘m not even sure that this is a “problem” for baseball since a big reason why many fans are attracted to the sport in the first place is that success depends on a team’s entire roster being solid rather than one or two superstars doing almost all of the heavy lifting.
I will push back a little on the first point-The A's and Rays don't have large payrolls, but are generally well-run (the "A's moving to Vegas" disaster notwithstanding), and are competitive more years than not. Even the Marlins had a good year last year (just don't talk about this year or the next 3-4). Pirates are improving, but ownership will most likely ruin it. So really, you have 4 disaster franchises in MLB-the aforementioned Marlins and Pirates, along with the Angels and White Sox. Every major sports league has its bottom-feeders though: The NFL has tbe Jets, Panthers, Jags and (historically) the Browns and Lions. The NBA has the Pistons, Nets, Clippers, Wizards, and Hornets. The NHL has the Blue Jackets, Sabres, and more historically, the Canucks, Maple Leafs, and even the defending champ Panthers. That last example does well to prove that even the worst teams are one GM hire away from a good few drafts in a row, and relevance, which is a beautiful thing. Sadly, this turnaround is slow in baseball especially, because even if you select the right players, they aren't going to hit the show for 3-4 years most of the time, and then need time (in most cases) to develop as big-league hitters. Compound this with the fact that owners are just as attention-span starved as your average teenage tiktok user, perhaps even more so, and often a good GM doesn't have time to build a good team in baseball. And there really is no good way to go about fixing this, players need time to develop in the minors, but owners gonna owner even when the GM does a seemingly good job.
I agree with your first point bcuz I’m not a baseball fan at all. I’m a cubs fan and I watch when the cubs are good.
Also players built HOF careers with one team. Tony Gwynn, Robin Yount, Kirby Puckett, George Brett. Now they’ll end up in Dodger blue or Yankee pinstripes
@@UncleJunSushiok, but any team in the nba and nfl can theoretically win a title within a few years time. Most teams in mlb that aren’t big markets will never have a chance to win. The mariners, Rockies, and brewers for example will never win a World Series, but those cities enjoy plenty of success in every other sport. Baseball is dominated by big markets like nyc, la, Dallas, Philadelphia, Houston, Atlanta etc. most of America doesn’t have a chance to watch their favorite teams win. If you live in Colorado or Seattle why watch baseball when you know that your team will never be able to compete? At the same time your teams in other leagues are always competitive.
6:09 - you can take this even further using VORP, which is another player value that becomes WAR when multiplied by 2.7. The highest single season WAR was Michael Jordan with 33.669. That effectively means that out of the 50 games the bulls won in 87-88, MJ was entirely responsible for 2/3s of them!
You know its bad when role players in the NBA are more recognizable than the best players of the MLB
I’d still love to be a baseball player low key and rich and playing baseball also shout out this guy for using an old future song that reminded me of high school thanks bro also the gta wasted over mike trout was menacing
love this video and I would like to share some things too… reading some of these comments I agree that baseball has its limitations in the very nature of the sport. I am happy to see genuine changes in the game to not only bring more excitement but make the game catered more towards athleticism. Very soon there will have to be a decision made on the strike zone/umping vs auto zone, pitching mound distance with guys all throwing too much gas now for hitters and way too many pitching injuries, as well as the big one no one likes to talk about is the length of the season and wear and tear on players… inevitably money speaks louder and as they pay players more there’s going to be more protection because ppl want to watch star players play not be injured. I also wish (I think it’s nearly impossible because of the injuries and money in baseball) that like soccer (football) there was multiple tournaments and things going on like Champions League etc… for those not yet aware baseball is spreading worldwide with many efforts and this could be a possibility in maybe the next 20/30 years. All in all, I objectively think that postseason baseball is one of the coolest sporting experiences you can watch up there with other sports but things like the WBC and Olympics should continue to be pursued by the best baseball athletes because that really did wonders (especially Japan winning 2023)
Vladdy Jr is in A&W commericals in Canada
Baseball is the worst it's ever been. You just mentioned half the reasons in a video. When I was growing up, we all knew McGwire, Griffey, Sosa, Bonds, Piazza, Maddox, etc. Now I can barely name ten players who aren't on the Cardinals
This is part of why Ohtani has been good for the sport.
Without him my grandma wouldn't know a single baseball player. They just don't make it mainstream anymore.
Also why I tell all the old farts getting upset at all the attention Ohtani gets to shutup. Baseball needs this.
That's a you problem, dude. There is so much talent in the league right now, it's no one's fault but your own if you don't know who they are.
@@SuperCatacata baseball needs it, but they also need another 10 or 20 players who get hyped and talked about. All the attention on one guy gets boring. There's not much he can do that's gonna interest me if it's not done on a baseball field
It surely doesn't help when managers are taking out pitchers who have a no-hitter after 7 innings. In the old days, the pitcher would argue with the manager and refuse to leave the mound. It would make the news...no-hitter or not. Today, the soft pitcher says "OK", the team may end up with a combined no-hitter (that NOBODY cares about), and everyone forgets. As opposed to a pitcher going 9 innings and no-hitting a team himself. It used to be history...one reason you go to the park...the off-chance you'd see a perfect game or no hitter, or a strikeout record. No more. Baseball is killing itself.
6:28 "People watch sports to chase individual greatness."
Then people are watching sports wrong.
The bat thing could be a problem I feel like having a big shiny decorated bat is kinda like a white glove for a pitcher
crybaby
Man, imagine a 56 game MLB season with no blackouts, that would be so cool! But they're instead so focused on selling MLBtv where you can watch the in-market teams every game.... Baseball needs to be more accessible! And if I pay for MLBtv I should be able to choose my team.
A schedule would also help. Like football, thursday night, sunday and monday. Baseball should have Wednesday and Saturday with a primetime day. Individual achievement is cool and all, but i want to watch MY GUYS win it all
big justice will save mlb
the individual pursuit of greatness is why i think track and field should be a much bigger sport than it is with a national league meet circuit in america and better tv rights for the international diamond league
The guy in the All State commercials used to play for the Guardians (then called the Indians).
It’s true baseball has some reasons it’s harder for it to market players as well however they don’t do nearly enough to help
The “slow” pace of baseball is beautiful, makes every homer or big hit feel so special. That awesome clutch moment that a player can do on his own essentially. I love it
no matter how good mike trout was, he could affect only 1/9 of at bats. no matter how good pedro martinez was, he can only affect 1/5 of team innings. meanwhile, patrick mahomes can pass to travis kelce all game long.
so, like you said, i'm not sure mlb can completely solve that issue. maybe on the margins, like, once per game, a team can set their lineup to any batter they want
one thing I've wanted is a postseason draft. so teams going to the postseason can take players from non-playoff teams. that would've solved the issue of trout or ohtani never being on the biggest games.
Bruh HELL NO to that postseason draft! That would dumb the sport down!
Postseason draft would be absolutely terrible for the players on the team that made the postseason. Imagine working your ass off every day, being a genuinely good player, and the dream comes true, your team makes the playoffs, only for your spot to be taken by someone who wasn’t even on your team. Save that shit for the All Star Game.
@@diegobrandomtg yeah, in the same way you can work your whole life to be in the majors, only for a prospect to come in some years later and they replace you
The only players that have to worry about that are the ones that the team thought were the biggest weakness.
@@Grievous_ how do you figure? Does it dumb the sport down to have a regular draft? No, no it doesn't
@@juancuelloespinosa Because that KILLS the competition, it would just be teams full of stars basically all star teams, now we don’t want that, what you’re asking for is to have a bunch of star players on 3-4 teams? Wow real fun! I like when things are more balanced
“You knew Tom Brady”
Did Tom Brady fucking die?
Retire
only thing I’d argue is the idea that mlb can’t solve the issue because of how the sport is. You only see players bat 3-5 times, but the same can be said when Ruth, Dimaggio, Mays, Mantle played. They weren’t batting more than 5x per game. So i definitely feel that baseballs issue is marketing and not really the game itself. Nfl for example, it’s lower scoring sport than mlb, games take almost an hour longer to complete, there are also way more commercials and “dead time” as well. Yet the nfl has been able to trick the average American to perceive it as a fast paced, high scoring sport. Don’t get me wrong I love watching nfl as well, but those are the numbers. MLB needs to do that. They’ve been trying with the rules changes last year but I think that should be a start not the end. New changes should focus on fixing the strikeout / three outcome hitters and also bring back the prominence of starting pitchers. And lastly, MLB has a gold mine with Ohtani, his two way contributions are a huge reason he’s by far the most marketable mlb player. His fame skyrocketed once he figured out the two way role. If mlb can be more open to two way players, that would give us some sort of equivalent to a qb or nba player who’s involved in the game so much more than everyone else. Obviously I have more to add but I think those are the most realistic changes that should happen in the next couple years. Things like moving the mound height / distance or a champions league style tournament with the top 4-8 leagues
MLB should have tapped more into the European Market, there is no reason why France and especially Spain do not have National Teams and with the NFL heavily diving into Europe, so it’s the point of no return for Baseball, and in the US, basketball has officially become the 2nd most popular sport
Its pretty weird to me as a Japanese person from Minnesota, baseball is Japan's national sport (yes, sumo is an argument but baseball has a bigger market) and you see stars of each team on commercials locally and most people who watch TV or youtube ads would know who they are, and its been a thing since TV became mainstream in Japan, you literally can find old commercials of Randy Bass shaving his iconic beard for a Gillette ad. And then i see i literally dont see any MLB players on american commercials and its super weird, because for example, "individualality repressed" metioned in the vid is also a thing in japan, even more infact, glove colors, bat colors etc all have rules for them. Honestly its just an MLB marketing problem the way i see it.
What a nice video!! Great job👏
Excellent breakdown. Couldn’t agree more as a huge baseball fan.
I think it all boils down to the unwritten rule, dont showboat and or showup your opponents, leaving players less boisterous.
That and baseball is and always has been a regional sport, they tend to represent the heart of their cities, so they are huge where they play. unless someone is an absolute phenom and or someyhing new like a shohei ohtani being on credible as a pitcher and a batter, which doesnt happen anymore because the sport has been around for a loooobnnnggggg time so nothing new or big ever happens anymore amd without it people focus on their teams alone
Too much effort goes into complaining about the unwritten rules. If players celebrated constantly, that would not attract more fans that watch the games, which is part of the problem. It's like how no one watches the NFL or NBA to watch the celebrations. Look up "celebration compilations" in either the NFL or NBA and it has nowhere near the same number of views as hit compilations or dunk compilations. People just don't understand what makes baseball interesting, even casual fans and that's MLB's problem. Ohtani is one of the most popular players right now and he's not out there flipping his bat or anything, so that disproves the theory right there.
It’s 2024, showboating is allowed, we see it every singe day and night. Unwritten rules are a thing of the past, we know this because we see showboating every single day and night and pitchers no longer do a damn thing about it
I'm not saying that that is exactly the reason, it's just theories I've had on the subject.
@@Alexander_Grant dude, baseball is my favorite sport, im not talking about myself there, I'm talking about, like you said, the casual fans. I'm not trying to make excuses for them,
@@jasonmilly3320 of course unwritten rules are a thing of the past, for the most part... but having only recently started to be that way over the past 5-10 years, that leaves nearly 120 years where baseball was ruled by unwritten rules.
I think it would help to advertise those web jems and defensive plays, because those players who bat 4 times a game are going to be on the field for 9 innings
I think one of the biggest issue is that baseball players have to go through the Minor Leagues to be Show ready. In the NBA/NFL, fans can easily track a player from when they took up the sport until they get drafted to their respective league. College baseball and the MLB might as well be two different sports because a player has to go through the minor and learn to be a professional baseball player. The NBA/NFL already has college developing players for the league...
I think MLB and College Baseball should do more aligning, but that'll mean the possible end of some parts of the Minor Leagues...
It’s already happening. Guys are getting called up to mlb so much quicker. Paul skenes and Wyatt Langford only spent like half a year in the minors, Jackson Holliday was playing high school baseball in 2022 & got called up this year.
Putting the Percocet and stopper joint on a baseball video is wild
The most exciting part of a game (a homerun) isn't celebrated unless it's a walk off. Other than that the players just run the bases, maybe pointing to the fans as they do so. The only team I've seen that's done any celebration regarding a normal home run are the Dodgers with the little hand wave as they past second. But that's it, and you could miss if as they don't do it for long. It's not like soccer or football where every goal or touchdown is celebrated (the exception being if it's scored with the team being in a massive deficit).
There's also the fact that the TEAMS are more marketable than the players. Look at the Dodgers and Yankees - everyone knows their logo, but you'd be hard pressed to ask someone wearing a Yankee or Dodger cap who their favorite player is and get a response. With other sports like basketball, football, and soccer, people get a jersey because of a players name (Lebron, Messi, Brady, etc.) but with baseball people get a jersey from the Yankees and Dodgers because it's a recognizable franchise, not because of the name on the back.
Outside of the US very little people knew about american football players.
The problem is, outside of Shohei and potentially Aaron Judge, no one in the United States knows MLB players unless they watch the sport. I think that’s the problem.
Wait until y'all hear about the NHL