Hot Take Friday: Dear MLB - Baseball isn't boring, You're Boring Everyone

I'm a giant baseball fan. I played from tee-ball through high school. Baseball is boring to a lot of people, but not us at TGYK. What is boring is the MLB.

I was born and raised an Orioles fan (pour one out for me) and being an O's fan has allowed me to not watch much baseball this year since they're the worst team in the league (and they better keep it up, pappa wants another #1 pick!). As a result, I've been able to take a step back and take a more objective view of where the MLB stands right now.

For years I've tuned into the Baseball and Softball College World Series and religiously watch the Little League World Series every August. Straight-up, these are way more fun to watch than the MLB and not because they're event television, but because they take advantage of the full atmosphere of the product they're offering.

Sbnation.com

The LLWS and ESPN, while tailored for families and kids, takes full advantage of the experience; showing off the fun the kids have, giving facts about their favorite things, make the families in the stands a part of the culture of the teams, and show-off how much fun being in the tournament really is. Whether it's having fun pre-game in the Dugout, the LLWS mascot, or playing ping-pong with a team from another continent, or the classic sliding down the outfield hill, ESPN makes it a priority to broadcast what is going on around the game and not just the game itself. To copy "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver," and now this:

This is Big Al. He's a legend. He hits dingers.

Moving to the Baseball and Softball College World Series. While not as fun to watch as the LLWS, they're still clearly very fun for the fans in attendance and the teams playing. Not to mention the level of competition and product put on the field is very underrated, especially the Softball tournament. College teams are notorious for having a lot of fun in-between innings and rain delays .

https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/1134879590235721729
Preview of Miami's Playbook for the 2019 season

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVyb1JPgYG5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
UNC bench doing their best Elvis and Costello

Do yourself a favor and watch the Cincinati Bearcats post-game interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZUNRZ4lDf0

These are just a few of a metric ton of examples of college teams taking advantage of all the dead time to have some extra fun and get attention. And it is this type of personality that the MLB is missing. Rob Manfred and the commissioner's office is so concerned with the pace of play or the length of the game that they're ignoring why people are so attracted to the NFL and NBA, examples of the immediate competition. Mr.Manfred, do what you can to shorten the length of the game, fine, but nothing has worked so far. I'm also a proponent of incorporating the Universal DH to add more offense and get rid of the batting pitcher which is perceived as an automatic out by most. But those aren't the solutions.

Watching these other tournaments and other leagues succeed, they're taking advantage of social media, all-stars, and personality to connect and build an audience. The MLB needs to evolve with the times and become less formal than it is. Forbes reported on January 7th that the MLB saw a record revenue of $10.3 billion for 2018, "while attendance was down, television revenues were largely flat, with no significant deals kicking in. Sponsorship revenues were up" (https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2019/01/07/mlb-sees-record-revenues-of-10-3-billion-for-2018/#2dd484ae5bea), up ONLY from $10 billion in 2017. Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports wrote a warning about the revenue record citing "non-player sources" (https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/01/07/a-warning-about-major-league-baseballs-record-revenues/) as the major revenue streams for the MLB. I bet if I walked down the street and surveyed 50 people and asked who Mike Trout, one of the best to play the game and the unanimous best player in the league, was, I would get disappointing results. 

The MLB is an entertainment source who isn't taking full advantage of being in the entertainment industry. In 2018, 12 teams saw attendance decrease and league-wide in 2019 so far, the MLB has seen a 4% decrease in attendance. This may be due to the mentality of tanking or all-in and no in-between, but people just aren't into the games. Even the minor leagues are notoriously known for wild/creative marketing and being ideal family experiences. So take a queue from your own minor leagues and the other examples I've mentioned and take advantage of the full environment of baseball games! 

Hot-take within a hot-take: enough with the mascot races, player Q+A videos, and follow the object to find the hidden thing games. They're used by everyone, old, and dull.

Use the time in-between innings, extra space on the field and in foul-territory, plus the fans and employees in the stands to take advantage of the full atmosphere of the entertainment. For the love of god, allow the players to be loose and free with bigger personalities. @MLB the 3 hour game-length isn't the problem, the problem is that you're not utilizing your platform to its full potential. You're America's past-time for a reason. Catch-up with the times.

- Ryan, TGYK