As I take a sip of ChocoVine and put my fingers to these keys, another baseball season is finally upon us, and my wardrobe changes to adjust to that. It's the time of year where I actually have something to either watch on television every single night, or listen to a broadcast on the radio. The football season has become that for me, and that isn't because the Eagles actually won a Super Bowl in the time I haven't written in here. I digress on that point.
Yesterday morning, we all witnessed a storybook retirement for one Ichiro Suzuki, as he gave his thank yous and waved his goodbyes in front of a Japanese crowd during the eighth inning against the Oakland A's during their Japan series. It was pretty amazing, and it felt like a piece of my childhood was ending. Although he didn't ever experience a World Series (the Mariners totally could have if the Yankees hadn't prevented that in 2001), he was still a master class in the batter's box, and was always a class act on and off the field.
I'm going to miss him, but not for the reason that you would think.
For the last five or six years, it hasn't come as any surprise that general interest in baseball hasn't been as strong as it has in years past. I can say that I fell into that category, and it wasn't because the Phillies started tanking and their dynasty died a fiery death. Mr. Manfred over in MLB's headquarters think that general loss of interest is because the average time of a game is too long. Funny, that was the exact thing I complained about in my last post two years ago. Here we are, still dealing with it after all of this time.
Even if you don't have a marketing or a public relations degree, it shouldn't be that hard to see that MLB's identity crisis goes way beyond keeping millennials seated in a folding chair for more than three hours.
It has everything to do with the marketing of the players. It has literally become a lost art, and it absolutely burns in every open wound and welt from a slide and hit-by-pitch.
When you watch a sport, you really should know the other teams involved, and know what kind of special players exist in the league to keep things fresh. My favorite thing to do in the last two years have been to ask people who aren't the absolute biggest baseball fans to name five big MLB players that aren't even on their own team. The two most common I had gotten were Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, and then I'd get names of guys that have long since retired.
General interest in ballplayers reached a head in mainstream news, not because they were good or because they were under the gavel of the law due to domestic abuse, but because they were receiving the biggest contracts ever administered in the history of sports. When Alex Rodriguez signed his ten-year, $275 million deal with the New York Yankees in 2007, that kind of contract was unheard of.
Now, twelve years later, we have:
- Nolan Arenado of the Rockies with an eight-year, $260 million deal
- Manny Machado of the Padres with a ten-year, $300 million contract
- Bryce Harper of the Phillies with a thirteen-year, $330 million deal
- Mike Trout of the Angels with a twelve-year, wait for it, $426.5 million contract
If you took a look at the highest-paid athletes in the world, SIXTEEN of the Top-20 paid athletes in the world are MLB players (three of the remaining four are NBA players, and the other is a boxer, which is really uncanny).
If you're pumping out this much money to have your talent, why on this green earth are they not getting marketed properly?!
I'd like to provide the largest example of how it isn't happening at all.
Remember this commercial?
LEBRON JAMES IS ON THE MOUND. HE IS A BASKETBALL PLAYER.
Why don't you have someone like Clayton Kershaw or Max Scherzer do it?
The lack of marketing and endorsement deals that baseball players have received have been slim to none, and when your biggest marketing effort is Little League, Nike, and New Balance, there's a serious problem. A 2016 article from the International Business Times attributes it to the idea that players are on the road for so many days of the year, and a 162-game schedule isn't ideal to promote a brand or ensure brand loyalty. [1] Now, when you throw this into the conversation, there's obviously one of two things wrong with this: (1) It's a lame excuse, because I remember seeing big-name players in advertising in the late-90's and early-2000's during the MLB season, and (2) It's becoming painfully evident that it isn't the length of a single game, but the length of the season as a whole has finally become too much for the average consumer.
(At some point, I'll write about how the 162-game season should go the way of the dinosaur. I think it'll be great writing therapy for a now-disgruntled sports fan like myself.)
When it comes to marketing the player, the main goal doesn't become brand loyalty to the product their endorsing, but becoming the face of the league in which they play. It has been stated year in and year out that guys like Mike Trout don't want that attention, and he's arguably one of the hottest names in baseball today. So, that being said, who is willing to grab that brass ring and keep the game alive? It goes beyond skill and longevity today. It's all about image and identity.
Okay, so the biggest argument I have going against me on this one is the fact that baseball 20-25 years prior was more than just table conversation and player marketing. The game was so much more different before the steroid scandals, because some of the feats achieved were superhero-like. The drama behind each game was like watching Attitude Era WWE wondering what was going to happen on this week's edition on "This Week In Baseball." It wasn't an overly proud time in baseball, but seeing what was going to happen in the home run wars was must-see TV.
This doesn't poo-poo the fact that watching impressive pitching performances in today's game isn't so at all, but the implementation of sabermetrics and the need for hard-hitting action in the game in a short amount of time is the figurative equivalent of steroids in the 1990's. Strength is good, but longevity and brandworthy moments are important to the growth of the game.
Give them a reason to keep returning to the stadium and the TV sets, not a reason to walk away from the stadium and the TVs faster.
I end this post with asking Kyler Murray this one question: How do you like waiting for the NFL draft knowing you missed out on a massive payday?
-- Stephanie
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Other articles referenced:
[1] MLB Stars Get Massive Contracts But Few Endorsements. Here's Why. - International Business Times - https://www.ibtimes.com/mlb-stars-get-massive-contracts-few-endorsements-heres-why-2348181
