Just a question: do you know when MLB’s opening day is? No, really, without looking, when is baseball back? Have you heard or seen any advertising? I’m sure I didn’t. At the end of a year of isolation and quarantine, where we, as sports fans, claim sports on our screens, you would think that “America’s Pastime” would scream from the top of the mountain that it would soon return.
So when does the baseball season start? Exactly one week from today. What a missed opportunity, MLB.
Major league baseball not only essentially chooses not to advertise, but they miss out on an amazing opportunity to change the tone and outlook of the league to the general public. Major league baseball players are still wrapped in American whites, apple pie, and hot dogs, and would rather play John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” than try to be new, fresh, youthful, and / or exciting. Here is an alternative option:
Different, right? Imagine a baseball league that promotes — and stays with me here, because it’s pretty radical — fun. You have a league full of superstar talent, but you don’t have rock stars like the one you see in the NBA and the NFL, and that falls directly on the shoulders of a league that tries to cling to an obsolete identity instead of embracing the culture and individuality of hip hop. they are players.
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Aside from (and maybe even including) playoff basketball, I’m not sure I’ve ever had fun watching baseball when they gave us the 2017 World Baseball Classic. I had fun because the players were they amused him. They were passionate, they were strong, they were showy, we celebrated their nationalities and cultures – it was all that MLB is not. Just look at this cut from Javier Baez, including the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on a baseball diamond: holding a tag in a second before even catching the ball and making a tag without a look.
That’s how baseball should be. The days of hot dogs and apple pie are over. If Major League Baseball wants to attract a new generation of sports fans (unlike the same fans who listen to ragtime music while eating their special special at 4pm), we need passion, excitement and not just the players express themselves, but a focus that celebrates it.