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| "I suck." |
I was listening to "The Herd" earlier (Lord knows why) and he was talking about how baseball "doesn't market their players" and how they have to "get with technology." All of this led to his conclusion that baseball is a poorly run sport and is losing popularity because of bad leadership in the commissioner's office. I agree with his end conclusion, but some of his points leading up to it were thin at best.
I suppose this was all brought about because Colin Cowherd attaches value of all things to TV ratings. It is his end all, be all measuring stick of popularity. He can't comprehend that keeping track of games via the internet or getting updates on someone's cell phone could detract from the TV ratings, but not affect the overall popularity. But like I said, his end point is correct- baseball is losing popularity and needs to do something to win fans back. First, let's look at the other points of his that I mentioned above.
"MLB doesn't market their players/stars." Ok.
That was Felix Hernandez in his own commercial. Yes, the same King Felix that won the Cy Young with a 13-12 record last year. How about this one?
Ubaldo Jimenez got his own commercial about how confusing his name is. He had a great first half last year, then faded and did not win the Cy Young award in the NL, yet he gets his own "Epic" commercial. Not enough?
You just went on a journey inside Brian Wilson's epic beard. In fact, I'd wager that Brian Wilson inspired the "Always Epic" ad campaign. My point is not that these commercials are great, my point is that baseball went out of its way to create commercials for Felix Hernandez, Ubaldo Jimenez, and Brian Wilson. Does this not show effort on MLB's part to market their players? Are they attempting to create stars? Brian Wilson may be better at marketing himself than MLB is (as evidence by Sportscenter and Baseball Tonight last night) but that doesn't mean that MLB is not aware that they need to create stars from their sport.
"MLB needs to get with technology." What the fuck, Cowherd? Get with technology? Are you serious? Between MLB Network, MLB.TV and MLB At-Bat, I believe MLB has the most accessible technology on the market for major sports. NFL Network is great and Red Zone is also great. However, The Sunday Ticket is limited to DirectTV so if you don't have that brand of cable (I do not) you are fucked. Also, I pay $100 every year to get almost EVERY SINGLE baseball game on my computer. The value there is staggering. The NFL product is great, but MLB is definitely technologically savvy and brings great value to the table. I'm pretty sure "getting with technology" is not their problem.
What is the problem? I honestly don't know for sure. For my part, I still love baseball. I watch a lot of it. The Cubs and my fantasy team sure aren't helping this year, but I can loosely follow the Giants and the rest of the league and enjoy the year. Baseball brings a consistent product to the table each and every day during the season. I love knowing there are games going on and even if I go work out or find something else to do besides watch TV, I'm always checking on scores from my phone because I care about baseball.
I agree, the sport could use some younger, more up-and-coming stars, and let's keep it real, Derek Jeter should have at least appeared at the All-Star game, but overall, I still very much enjoy the game. Now, if the commissioner's office could get out of their own way, maybe baseball could be brought to another level, but that could be wishful thinking.
3 comments:
That's SIR Sidney Ponson and not Bartolo. Boy, I hope someone got fired over that mistake.
Colon wouldn't have been that dreadful if EEEEEEduardo NunEEEEZ could field the damn ball.
I don't know this first hand, but I'm told that the NBA is the most accessible sport somehow. MLB is the least because you can't embed their videos apparently. Again, I don't know this myself, just from what I've heard.
Cowherd is a fucking idiot. He has said numerous times that Jeter isn't a superstar. Being in movies, having books written about him, hosting SNL twice, 3000 hits, Gatorade, Nike, 5 rings, and playing in NYC apparently does not make one a superstar.
The biggest problem with MLB is they will jump all over a video posted anywhere on the internet and get it taken down. I understand wanting to make sure you can't watch a game the next day on youtube, but you can't even put up a two minute video of Will Clark hitting a home run, even though there is literally no MLB service that competes with.
Grant from MCC goes on rants every so often about how he would pay money to watch highlights from the Giants' '89 season, or highlights of past greats like Nolan Ryan or Tom Seaver or Reggie Jackson. There's no way to see those things at all, and MLB could make a lot of money and (re)connect with their fan base. Hell, I'd like to go back and watch Scott Garrelts throw his 8 2/3 innings of no hit ball (fuck you, Paul O'Neill), or some good old fashioned Clark/Williams/Bonds lineups. But we can't, and that's fucking ridiculous.
This might be a problem with all pro sports leagues, but I think MLB is run by people who really aren't that big of fans of the game. Otherwise, I've got to think it would occur to Bud Selig that he's sitting on a mountain of childhood memories and history with the sole purpose of making sure no one can see it.
First off, that was some second rate picture grabbing I did earlier. Both Ponson and Colon are fat and suck, so I guess that's where the confusion came from- the pic did say it was Bartolo, though. Oops!
Jeter is clearly a super-star. I do know they need to inject the sport with some new superstars soon, and I think they are trying to do that on some level.
I agree with putting up videos to re-connect fans to the past. Baseball's foundation is based on nostalgia. Hell, that's why they don't want to change anything about the game. They feel it will taint the past. Newflash: Baseball is fully tainted already between its racist beginnings and steroids.
Maybe Selig found a way to live forever by sucking the energy away from childhood memories? That's my only thought as to why he would hunt down YouTube offenders.
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