Here is Baseball's biggest problem that nobody is talking about. Rob Manfred really needs to see how guys like Bryce Harper. Kris Bryant, Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Buster Posey and such mean to the game. Thank you guys for watching!!!
Good point. Nike, Adidas, and UA should come out with signature Player Caps. For real. Also, I read that Under Armour will take over the MLB uniforms in 2020. That could change the fashion game for fans.
I'm 40 but, when I was a kid in like 86 87 88 89 baseball stars were a huge deal. Mcgwire, Strawberry, Gooden, Canseco, Ozzie Smith, Andre Dawson, Dave Winfield. Huge deals. Something changed.
There's no flash allowed in the MLB. Flip your bat and the "good ole boys" of baseball get pissed the f off about something so trivial. Meanwhile in the NBA you have windmill dunks and people getting posterized and glaring down the camera it just looks cooler. There's a reason why the NFL BROUGHT BACK touchdown celebrations after a ban for a few seasons. MLB is too by the book and to kids that's just boring.
KTG the flash in baseball is different than the flash in other sports, flash in baseball is the diving catch or the walk off hit. A windmill dunk doesn't win the game or the touchdown doesn't either. Answer this why are people in nba so lazy
For the first time in awhile, baseball has incredibly talented and marketable young stars. Harper, Trout, Bryant, Stanton. Overall baseball attendance and revenue is up. They just need to get the younger crowd involved. I just hope they don't panic and implement some of the ridiculous rules they've mentioned which are totally unnecessary.
Back when I was younger Ken Griffey was a huge star !!! And he had sneakers ,video games ,Wheaties,etc.. he was the Michael Jordan of baseball in the 90s. I don’t know y they don’t do the same with today’s players. In the 90s plenty of players where household names. Jeter, A-Rod, Frank Thomas, Mark Mcgire , Sammy Sosa!! Plenty of guys!! I think after the whole PED thing they went away from individual players and that is what is killing them now !!
m turley Baseball doesn’t appeal in the urban market like basketball or football. Back in the day, ESPN had great baseball coverage back in the day. Now they focus on LeBron and if he gets gas after eating Mexican.
It really doesn’t make any sense when you think about it, it’s all going back into MLB’s own product, I’ve had people tell me that they’ve got back into MLB because they watch my videos 🤷🏼♂️
Honestly... Derek Jeter was the closest thing we had cause everyone knew him. More people knew/know who Derek Jeter is than Trout. I think it partly has to do with Jeter being a Yankee. If Trout was a Yankee he may be more known. The media usually covers the Yankees, why do you think Aaron Judge has had the #1 top selling jersey.
No kidding. I tried to put on ESPN the other day because i just watched an exciting game it literally took like 30 minutes to finally get something. The funny part as of right now, there are a lot of fun teams (as if the last two playoffs weren't any more of an indication). Manfred is trying to hurry the game to make it like the pace of the NBA. Let baseball be itself. Dont make it the fake NBA because people see right through that.
Statutory Grape Yeah, but as a baseball guy for life, I hate to admit it, but it is solidly in third place and slowly declining in the U.S., ignoring that fact is ignoring the truth. Really athletic kids usually don’t prefer baseball. Something has to be done. I dislike it too, I just can understand why he’s trying to.
No one except you and the video poster actually believes Manfred is trying to make it like the NBA. No matter how many rules are in place, it will never be as fast as the NBA. Letting baseball "be itself" is the cause of the problem. Selig allowed Yankee teams from the 90s to turn the game into a crawl and didn't have the balls to fix it while it was happening. I understand you might be a teenager and have no idea what I'm talking about, but at least do a little research before assuming baseball has always been as slow and painful as it is now. I'm not even talking about baseball 50-100 years ago. I'm talking about 20-30 years ago. A short enough time that the vast majority of people watching the game are very familiar with it.
What did the Yanks do in the 90's that Selig could have stopped? Stop using their good eyes to draw more walks? The policy of mixing and matching pitchers for hitter is an invention of Tony LaRussa, who used that technique when he was managing the White Sox in the early 80's. All of baseball has used that method since. The game has slowed to a crawl mostly because of inserted adverts: this next pitch is brought to you by your local Chevy dealer, or the next out will be the twelfth of the game, and don't forget that ??????? Pizzeria, insert your favorite, is having a two large pies for twelve dollars special after the game. How about the endless replays after every swing? Not only home runs, but even hard hit singles have to measured by STATCAST to get exit velo? That is what has slowed down the game, not the Yankees.
This guy really knows what he is talking about. The game of baseball doesn't need to be changed, the merch and media platforms surrounding it need to be 'improved'. I think having a 'face' of the MLB, would be good idea. But who would it be? If you were to ask a younger kid 'who's the best baseball player?' i could guarantee you the names, Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Kris Bryant, Mike Trout, Giancarlo Stanton, Buster Posey, and Manny Machado will be your most common answers. But i think Rob Manfred needs to sit down and actually listen to what the real fans of baseball have to say so he could hopefully stop changing the game we all know and love!!
Why does the MLB need social media? I can't speak for football, but baseball seems to be the ideal place, due in large part the warm weather outside and available stadium dining space to eat and get comfortable (whether sitting or standing) for the sake of socializing. Who cares about the game itself?
Well, I think it is also the accessibility to play these sports. Kids who watch and follow sports usually play sports, as well. At any park in the country, you will always see players on the court playing basketball. All you need is a ball. But however, baseball has become less accessible to the core of kids: only the wealthy kids, who have enough money to join organized baseball and pay to play can play. This is shifting baseball as a sport and culture towards the direction of sports like golf, tennis, or soccer in America, where only kids from wealthy parents end up playing the game, and less like basketball, where the sport is played by the rich, poor and middle. My point is, if you want a younger audience to start following baseball, make it easier and less expensive for kids to play baseball.
richard alvarado yeah but you gotta realize it’s easier to get a pickup game of basketball going then getting a big group of people to play baseball. Plus in the city’s there’s basketball courts everywhere empty lots where you could play baseball not so much
Very well made video I agree. I find it annoying that all ESPN does is talk about is Football year round when Baseball is going on. There is a ridiculous amount of bias.
ESPN is notorious for extensive coverage of sports that they have television deals with. They have minimal hockey coverage, and not surprisingly, no NHL TV contract. ESPN owns Monday Night Football and essentially half the NBA playoffs and all of the Finals, and therefore cover those sports relentlessly. They do have a TV deal for MLB, but it's only Sunday Night Baseball and a few low-key weekday games. If for some reason FOX renounced the World Series rights and it ended up with ABC/ESPN, Mike Trout would be a household name.
Marino De Jesus if you have a good pitcher on your team it's not boring because its 1 2 3 back in the dugout . its boring when your pitcher can't throw strikes and walks everybody.
I think that baseball's extremely boring and also think that hitting a 99MPH fastball is the most difficult thing for any athlete to do in any sport. I would legitimately enjoy baseball if it didn't take four hours. Its the same reason I like the NBA until the last 30 seconds when it takes 25 minutes. Makes me want to blow my brains out. I watch sports bc they're exciting, I don't want to watch the pitcher throw to first base 50 times, its boring AF.
I absolutely agree. MLB markets their stars well to baseball fans. However, they are not marketed well outside of the baseball niche. I look at Kris Bryant as a prime example. He is a good looking guy, solid all around player who hits tanks, has won an MVP and ROY award, been an all-star twice, and was on the curse breaking Cubs WS team. Basically he has done everything you can do as a player. Not to mention Bryant plays in one of sports largest markets. Regardless, I know for a fact that a good amount of people outside of Chicago and the "baseball circle" as a whole, have no idea who Kris Bryant is. It is unfortunate, because he truly is one of baseball's most marketable players.
PhillySports7262 ' nah it’s true hockey highlights get buried by basketball plafoff coverage and offseason football it’s sad and this is coming from a hockey fan
I don't know about other markets, but in mine (LA), Dodger games are only on cable. It's harder for the casual fan who has satellite or basic TV to watch. There needs to be more games on basic tv for people to watch or like you said, RU-vid. People aren't going to buy a cable subscription just to watch baseball (except hardcore fans).
The reason they don’t have it on anything besides cable is because the dodgers are in desperate need of money, because they don’t have enough to be paying some of their players
They make more money than any other team ($522n) except for the Yankees ($619m) in 2017 plus they top the list of attendance. However, they pay their players too damn much. Sportsnet reached 79k households per game while when it was on KTLA for 10 games it averaged 378k homes per game. They'd make plenty of money through advertisements if they could stream it and show on basic tv, getting even more interested in attending + buying merchandise.
Basketball is made to highlight individual stars, baseball has the same problem football does. With so many guys on the field in specialized roles, it's hard to make one a superstar to people outside the sport.
1. MLB needs to spend some of their revenue on heavy marketing and promotion. Whether its on social media or basic cable channels. We're bombarded with so many damn NFL DRAFT talk, which is insane because none of these players arent even in the NFL. 2. Id like to see more MLB camps being set up in inner cities, like the NBA does with AAU. Theres so many camps in latin countries which is great. But expand your game in your own country first then outwards.
Realist Paco 3 innings? More like 3 plays. I stopped watching ESPN years ago, but my lasting memory would be watching highlights of a close and exciting Tigers game with a few great plays. And then the highlights... “Verlander was just, dominant.” (Shows one strikeout) “Tigers win 4-3” LIKE THAT WAS IT!
I think another thing is player apparel. Every time I go into an UnderArmour store I see so many Steph Curry shirts and sweatshirts. So many players have contracts with ADIDAS but no apparel. So how about like Bryce Harper shirts or Mike Trout sweatshirts
who's man? I think it's going away cause most people that watch baseball are older. They need to let the players be themselves and stop trying to police everyone. The NBA grew from having superstars that influence things outside sports and having more exciting gameplay. Baseball has none of those
That’s right baseball is the intelligent persons game!!!! Always thinking about the next few plays and what could be if this happens or that happens, a lot of people can’t even watch an inning lol, meanwhile I can’t get enough lol!!!!
the reason i started watching baseball again was when i was watching bobby crosby’s videos of him going to dodger games i found it very interesting and helped me find my love of the game again but now mlb made him stop posting videos for copyright. another person i watch is zach hample does basically the same thing and you can see how many people recognize him at games i’m sure that helps bring people in to fill the stands so i don’t know why they don’t encourage them into making more videos and what not. anyway that’s just my 2 cents on the whole situation
I'm really enjoying your content. I watch Mike korzemba alot and was happy to find that your content was similar except you make baseball videos. Keep up the work and hopefully the subs will keep coming!
I remember thinking to myself that there are little to none RU-vid channels that cover baseball like there are for basketball. I’m glad I found your channel because I really enjoy the content. Also, the field you used for the thumbnail background was actually the high school I went to. So I thought that was pretty cool
Don’t know about anyone else but, I thought it was a treat getting to watch people like Trevor Hoffman and mo come in and shut down teams in the 9th. If you want to watch nothing but home runs watch men’s slow pitch softball. Pitchers aren’t paid millions of dollars to throw batting practice.
One of the best youtube channels was Dodger Films. A guy with season tickets shagging BP homeruns and any game homeruns. It focused on the fans and player interactions. Less than thirty percent of his content was actual game footage. This small amount was enough for MLB to put the kibosh on his channel. Nice going MLB.
Hello Dawson...excellent video I have to say...I really enjoyed watching it and getting your take on this issue....I am actually a college baseball player myself and a huge MLB fan... To sum your discussion up...it is hard to market baseball players and make them as commercialized as someone like Lebron or Tom Brady. I think a major part of this comes from baseball itself...it is a game of failure: No matter how good Trout is...he will have more days where he is 1-4 or 0-4 than 3-4 or 4-4. Baseball is a hard sport, in my opinion, the hardest to play out of the three. Lebron can pretty much go out and score 20 a night on any given day, and Brady can throw 2-3 TDS a game no problem. This means these athletes can market themselves because the chance of them failing and going into a slump is highly unlikely, thus it is protection in the media for them to advertise and promote their brands and products. For baseball players, this is not the case. Every year new all-stars emerge and every year new teams make it to the playoffs and world series, showing just how unpredictable this game really is. Baseball, also due to the difficulty of the game, has a code of conduct that is highly based off of humbleness, showmans-ship and professionalism. Yes, it is a shame that in basketball you can Posterize a player and be rewarded, while in baseball if you strike someone out/hit a homer and decide to celebrate in the same ways as the basketball players would, you are labeled "showing the other team up". The code is to act like you've been there before...while basketball gets the pass on acting like you've never done it before. Even Lindor after hitting the bomb in Puerto Rico decided he should apologize to the Twins for his "excessive" celebration. Solution: Have someone stand out and lead a new wave of baseball marketability: Sooner or later a player will come along who decides to be a marketable force while also being an entertaining ballplayer on top of it. Many have failed (ex: Marcus Stroman) to be this groundbreaking player...I thought Giancarlo would do it, but so far as you can see he has struggled...it will take a Griffey type of person who doesn't care what people think of him...he's going to be himself and create new fans just from his personality and ability....imagine if Griffey tried to do what he did in today's game...many would crucify him...but if that is what it takes to put a baseball player on the map...then I guess it is worth the fight.
NBA is a star-driven league while MLB is mostly about the teams and the history (Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers...etc). The fact that baseball has become so stats-focused isn't helping it either.
The main problem which Rob Manfred has overlooked is the fact that the younger generation today has grown up on football and basketball, high action sports with a lot to cheer about, every hit, every basket scored, can be cheered for, while in baseball, an out is kind of overlooked, unless it's an amazing defensive play. A strikeout can be cheered for, but unless a pitcher is on, it doesn't happen all the time. People today like instant gratification, and sadly baseball is not big on that, I love the game, and will watch it my whole life, but most people will never find the joy in it.
Great video Dawson!!! The overall culture of the game does need to get better in order to stand out to lots of people. I love the fact that your pointing this out because slowly building the culture up in different aspects will definitely allow more people to get into baseball and make it super popular. It's just a matter of guys like you and the players taking action.
MLB should try harder to get more little leagues in the inner cities. One particular demographic of people are not looked a for development in baseball anymore. The MLB would rather go the cheaper route and seek out players from other countries. Instead of getting "all of our youth" here in the great USA into this sport. Sad 😔... Jackie Robinson is looking down at us right now and shedding a tear😢
Well they're trying with the RBI program but I think the impact of that ratings wise isn't gonna take any sort of effect for the next 5 years at least. As for the lack of prospects coming from the inner cities, remember that most good athletes have a choice between sports. What kid from the inner city is going to pick baseball over basketball when A: basketball is more popular and it's easier for players to become well known, even by the casual fan and B: you'll make more money and get that money sooner because once you're drafted by an NBA team you can play, when you get drafted by an MLB team you have 3-5 years or more till you make it to the bigs. Not really the MLBs fault
But MLB has already tried that. They’ve spent millions on inner city projects to promote the game. Baseball’s issue with black Americans is its image as a game of standing around, throwing the ball fast and hitting a ball over a wall. That’s just boring to most kids. And this is the result of the way MLB managers strategize and the way MLB markets the game. The game is played very differently than the way it was when black Americans loved baseball even more than white Americans.
Martin Fernandez, the fastest MLB players have always been black Americans and probably always will be. As for passion, that’s debatable. All MLB players have an incredible drive to be great, otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten through the minors.
Martin Fernandez, general managers will always want fast players. There will always be positions for black players to step into if they take them. Even then, it’s not like there aren’t blazing fast white players, either. Harrison Bader, for example, is probably in the top-5 fastest players in baseball.
I think a very big reason for the lack of interest from a younger audience is that younger fans resort to sports that are easiest to understand. Basketball has a simple premise, football as well, hockey can get a bit complicated however baseball takes the cake with the various rules and stats that come with it. I have recently started to get into the sport and the biggest difficulty was understanding what a good ERA or WHIP was when comparing players. When a sport like baseball uses percentages as player stat comparisons its hard to track. Take Touch downs, or goals or points per game in other sports, very easy to track and understand. The MLB needs to first, educate young kids about the rules of the game, MLB the show was actually a huge help for me in understanding how stats play a part in the real game. I didn't even know what a pinch hitter or DH were before playing the game.... And with guys like you promoting the sport and doing the educating, that will certainly help. Great content and keep it up dude!
Problem. People just don't like baseball for what it is. They always want it to change it like football or basketball. What happened.... cluster of rule changes that take away from the game. Like play clock idea, its dumb.
Bruce Millard The uniforms are boring and nearly indistinguishable. They need to put some stripes or other designs like gradients or something like in other sports. The bats need to be team colored too.
NBA changed a lot in just the past 5 yrs.....Not much defense and boxing out anymore bombs away shooting, just look at GS. The NFL might as well ban the RB since all they do is pass, pass and more passing. The NBA has the adolescent kids and the NFL has adults while MLB has old white males just like golf. Hockey & soccer have a foreign following.
i think personality wise the game needs someone to bring in the fans players loved mickey mantle back in the day because of his good looks and also his friendships with famous stars like sinatra and the rat pack. Todays MLB stars have no connection to pop culture like NBA and NFL stars do, the main problem i see is players just being anti social, guys we used to have back in the early 2000s like Nick Swisher, Dallas Braden true characters and for lack of a better word Goofs. I have season tix to the giants and this years center fielder Austin Jackson has done nothing to win me over as a fan, doesnt wave to the crowd, doesnt produce on the field (yet) and just has not done anything to build a fanbase here in SF. I use jackson as an example because i have bleacher tix but ask many casual giants fans who jackson is and many probably couldnt give you much on him
There aren't a lot of working class baseball players anymore (Other than the Dominicans). A lot of these guys are trust fund babies. You don't see guys like Babe Ruth who grew up in an orphanage or Mickey Mantle who grew up in Dust Bowl Oklahoma. To be fair, with how much equipment costs, those are the only type of people who can actually afford to invest in their kid's dreams of being a baseball player. Mike Trout might be the closest thing, since Millville is one of the poorest cities in New Jersey, but by all accounts he had a decent upbringing.
I think the mlb needs to capitalize on Ohtani. If the general public found out how much of a freak he is, and how much potential he has to become an absolute sports legend, maybe they will start watching more
Dodgerfilms used to be a great outlet for people to feel like they’re at a baseball game without actually going to a game. I still can’t believe they randomly shut him down like they did.
I totally agree with your point about the lack of visibility for baseball's stars, compared to other sports. I just started following baseball towards the end of last year and even I didn't know who Mike Trout was before that 😂
ESPN started shrinking the air time on baseball ever since they bought the rights for Monday night football. I listen to the radio every single day. Even on the radio it’s nfl the majority of air time, the Mets get some air time because the majority of DJ’s are Mets fans except for Michael Kay. I agree with you when you say that your basically the only you tuber that carry this type of opinionated videos, others either make fun of the game or they just play an entire video of highlights without no commentaries. I remember back then growing up without the internet in my hands, I knew who Ken Griffey jr was, Barry bonds, the big unit, etc. base on how much espn use to drive their stardom, how the news papers use to drive the out of town teams in a few pages. I grew up buying 3 different types of news papers every day just to read the sport section. I own 3 pairs of Griffey’s shoes. Mind you I had the Griffey’s without knowing they were Ken Griffey jr signature shoes lol it was all base on how they looked tho I grew up in the Bronx we use to play strike box baseball in the streets I bought the Griffey’s because they looked like baseball shoes. But I agree 100% is like Manfred only cares about 1 aspect of the game(pace of game) not seeing the big picture in witch you drive your stars, if you let the stars drive the sport mlb can take over but is dying slowly I really don’t see baseball making it in let’s say another 20 years the way is going
Never was much of a baseball fan, but the NHL definitely has it worse. Absolutely no player is a household name besides Gretzky after an episode of The Office. And it isn’t a very relatable sport because most of us can’t drop a G on equipment when you can just buy a $20 basketball. I live in Texas and our minor league teams constantly call it quits yet our basketball and baseball leagues stay standing. At least I can still go to Stars game for relatively cheap. 👍🏻
Hockey has more of a international following if you’ve ever been to Canada it’s all they talk about plus Russia the same thing. Where in America it’s mainly a basketball/football dominated country
The problem with baseball is that everyone thinks it is a boring game when it is not. One of my co workers told me they would rather watch soccer than baseball anytime. This is sad. Baseball is all about strategy more than anything else.
for me soccer and baseball are on the same level, im more of a basketball fan, but i think if the baseball games were a lot shorter theyll be more exiting to watch, at least more than soccer
troy arrington I agree that the season should be shorter. My Mets won the World Series in 86 and there was a 162 game season back then. The owners have become greedy and want more revenue. This is why the season feels longer.
I do actually have the trout turf shoes... because they were the best I could get. Actually didn't notice they were trout's shoe until I got them. I just needed a shoe that wouldn't get destroyed when I dragged my foot in my follow through in pitching.
They need to get rid of their outrageous blackout rules too. They could reach a lot more people if MLB.TV didn't black out like every single team in your general vicinity (I'm even talking like blackouts for teams 8 hours away).
This is a major problem. Here, you can only watch Dodger games if you have Spectrum. Stupid because a lot of people (mostly younger) are shifting away from cable/satellite and going streaming. There is MAYBE 10 games a year on basic TV.
Chris M I feel that! Streaming is the way of the future and MLB is very outdated in their ways, and TV and streaming shouldn’t have to fight each other over broadcasting rights. I live in Oklahoma and the Royals, Cardinals, Rangers, and Astros are all blacked out (some parts of western OK used to have the Rockies backed out as well) and it’s insane. STL is 6-7 hours away and Houston is like 8-10 (and Denver is forever away); I understand the Rangers and Royals, even though they are still 4 hours away one-way. It’s sort of no man’s land and sometimes games are on at the same time and there’s only 2 channels for them all so you have the Thunder playoffs, Royals, Rangers, and Cardinals all fighting for 2 channels unless you pay a boatload extra per month.
Yes, they shouldn't be fighting over rights. Streaming should get you access to all the behind the seen stuff plus maybe even 5% discount on merchandise (which is another story). The blackout restrictions are broken right now and it hurts the game. I can't watch the Dodgers without Spectrum (fortunately, I do have it but my friends aren't so lucky).
They can't forget basic tv though. Keep in mind, not everyone has internet or a very good connection. Buying a tv and bunny ears is cheap, no long term cost and reaches everyone. Hell, Sunday football is on CBS/NBC/FOX, why can't baseball?
Marcus stroman is probably one of the few that market themselves really well. He’s active on social media, in touch with pop culture always talking about music and other athletes, and dude has his on brand called HDMH. I’m a dodgers fan but he’s definitely one of my favorite players
I love your videos and I share the passions for baseball. I want to help show people how much fun the sport actually is and make it more mainstream. I'm working on trying to get a RU-vid channel but I don't quite know much about how to start a channel. Any tips would be very helpful
As much as I love the unwritten rules of baseball, we need less humility more Bat flips, more trash talk and more Rivalries. Closest thing we've had to that here in AZ was Archie Bradley Coming out in an interview and saying he doesnt like the LA crowd showing up at our house and acting like they own the place... and that was almost too taboo for baseball.
Well Martin it's thinking like that which is going to kill baseball. If we don't care about the next generation watching it then what happens when that generation becomes the oldest generation? Baseball gets forgotten and dies. That's exactly why we need to make the newer generations appreciate baseball, or we can kiss our beloved sport goodbye
Martin Fernandez These are some pretty vague statements that cannot be proven and are not true for a lot of people. Honestly it's really sad if you hate the new generation this much. After all the new generation was raised by our generation, we need to stop blaming the kids and start blaming the parents
When I want baseball news I go to the mlb channel and RU-vid because sportscenter doesn't talk alot about baseball... To be fair the NBA playoffs are on and then the NFL draft just started.... N the NHL playoffs.. Which they don't care about NHL either...
I’m in college and since I’m not paying for cable, I have no way to watch baseball outside of finding a stream somewhere? It’s insane, I’d be watching every single game if I could
Also Dawson I really wanted to get into the MLB this year. Korzemba got me into the NBA with his vids, and I was looking for the baseball version of him...
Ive just been recently watching a bunch of umps throwing players out of games...seemingly for no reason or very little for some of them. Do you think these umps have too much power/are way too trigger happy throwing people out?
I don’t think they have too much power, but in a lot of situations they throw people out for basically nothing, and it is really bad when it’s a star player
Dawson Wright they act like they are gods on the field. A player should be able to question a strike or ball (not saying they should be reversible calls). Umps arent perfect and its ridiculous that they act like they are.
Also, there are not as many children playing youth baseball as there was 10 - 15 years ago. I grew up in a small town and still live here, when I was in Midget baseball (10-12 years old), there were 8 teams. Now, this town only has 4 and is forced to play teams from 2 other surrounding towns to make a schedule. When I played we only played against other teams in our town, with the exception of a scrimmage type game with other town teams. Baseball has definitely lost the children of this era. It's very sad, but, I'm happy my two sons enjoy playing. But, if I didn't go out of my way to take them to Minor League games in Harrisburg, PA they probably wouldn't have the interest in the game like they do.
MLB has not had a baseball game on Xbox in 5 years. (RBI don't count, that is trash) How do you not have an annual release MLB game that is pushed in the digital era? Video games are too wide of a market to ignore if you are looking to get kids interested.
Dawson Wright- no doubt Playstation paid a ton of cash but it is at the expense of your star recognition. I understand why, it just can not help. Great videos too
Baseball will never be a fast pace game like football or basketball, changing rules will not get you any new fan's, those that watch baseball don't mind the long hours, does that don't, do, stop changing the rules, you might just lose some fan's because your definitely ain't going to make new fan's
I agree you can't and shouldn't try to make baseball into something it's not. It can be enjoyed based on its own merits and the question is how to get people there. A Simpsons scene pops into my mind, where Kang and Kodos watch the World Series from their flying saucer and speed it up with their accela-ray because of how boring they find it, only to come to the conclusion that it's still boring. However, if you consider that a few decades ago, the average baseball game was a little over 2 hours long, while today it's over 3, it's perfectly understandable that pace of play becomes a thing, especially considering the modern age with its social media, shorter attention spans and all that. The question of course is how to effectively improve that without taking away from the game or altering it too much. Also consider that tweaks and rule discussions have always been part of baseball, especially in its early formative years. In that sense, baseball purists are short-sighted, treating it as blasphemy and an anomaly, when it is in fact the normal course of events. Things change and evolve over time and so does baseball. Rule changes have been an answer to that. Potential changes shouldn't however be mindlessly implemented; they should be thoroughly weighed and debated over. The no-pitch intentional walk for example I think is a mistake. Has a negligible effect on game duration and memorable moments of walks gone wrong, even if they are the odd occurrence, are now relegated to the past. It's stuff like that that keeps baseball unpredictable, interesting and filled with drama. herosports.com/news/mens-baseball/mlb-to-change-intentional-walk-rule-so-here-are-the-10-most-incredible-intentional-walk-moments-in-baseball-history
Once Junior left the league, it was all over. We had the shoe culture before you were around. I had Griffey spikes when I played. So did many other kids. I also had about 6 different pairs of his regular shoes. Some of which they've been re-releasing lately.
Basketball is boring. The same damn teams always win the championship. Golden state, Lebrons team, Celtics, Lakers or spurs. It’s been like that the past 10 years. Baseball has not had a repeat champion since the Yankees in 97-2000. Except the giants that win every couple of years. Baseball is unpredictable. Basketball is not.
Mossi Oak Basketball is more action packed and fast paced than baseball. Also, it is not the same teams winning all the time. The Warriors and Cavs have been the past three years, that's it. Celtics and Lakers were in the past. If you want to look at the past maybe you should look at the Yankees? The same team that won 27 times. Really competitive, huh.
sk 1278 the yanks haven’t won since 2009. Before that 2000. The last 6 nba championships have been golden state twice, lebrons team 3 times and then the spurs. The last teams to win the World Series have either never won one or haven’t in years. Basketball is a stacked sport. In baseball you can’t just stack superstars. Ie. look at the dodgers who have all that power but can’t win. Or like how the yanks are off to a bad season after all the fa signings they made. You can’t predict a winning team in baseball as easily as you can in basketball. Just have 3 superstars in basketball and you can win like golden state.
Baseball doesn't have salary caps, what do you mean you can't buy a team. The yankees bought their championships. In any case, look at some other sports. Football has a different winner every year just about.
VinnyC1323 no that would be football. And it’s fun watching a group of 10 guys run back and forth scoring 100+ points? I’d rather see a guy hit a grand slam to turn a game around than watch an opposing team to golden state or lebron get dominated over and over again. Or flop to get some easy shots. The final few plays in football or baseball than watch the last 30 minutes of a close basketball game where they foul the shit of people to stop a clock when 9 out of 10 times the shit don’t work.
VinnyC1323 no it’s not. People all around the world watch. It’s not as big as soccer in other countries but it’s not not popular. Mexico and Brazil alone account for over 40 million viewers. Those are the two places also where there are the most soccer fans.
You wanna make baseball more exciting, start doing a split season format. Problem is when you come to June, July, August etc you generally know who the teams contending for the playoffs are and who just doesn't stand a chance anymore. Those teams that don't stand a chance end up losing attendance with two to three months to go in the season. You'll have the surprise here and there, but it doesn't happen that often. With a split season format, first you create that fevor for the pennant twice a season instead of it being just September, teams that perform poorly in the first half will have the slate wiped clean in the second half helping to keep their fanbase interested which will help keep attendance up, and for the smaller market teams that generally have a harder time keeping up in a full season, this levels the playing field for them. This isn't a foreign concept to baseball, most of the minor leagues do this.
wil2197 i think they are asking for an explanation as to what you mean by a split season. You explained the benefits without explaining the concept which may be foreign to some
Fair enough. Basically it's like having two shorter seasons in a year. In most minors, the season gets split into two halves. After the first half, the records are reset and they play the second half. The winners of the first and second half then play each other for the championship. If one team wins both halves, then most of the time they'll be matched with a team with the next highest overall record. It would be the same principle in the Majors, except (and this is just how I would do this) teams that finish first in their division and the wild card in the first and second half would go on to play each in a one game divisional championship/wildcard game (unless a team won their division/wildcard in both halves, then I would just award it to them). So now not only do you create more excitement year round and get rid of that lull in the middle of summer (and honestly in the case of most teams, for the rest of the year) but now you create a Championship Week for baseball on television, which would probably end up being very popular and give renewed interest in the sport.
I think it also has to do with the very nature of baseball; discrete plays in succession with a lot of time in between, not prolonged flowing action. It holds more of a barrier to entry, not as flashy and instant. You have to learn to appreciate the slower pace, the build up, savor the bursts of action, recognize all the ins and outs. I'd liken it to wine-tasting where you need some persistence and openness to discover the rich palette of flavors sitting beneath the surface. I think the biggest problem with how the game is played currently at the major league level is less balls put into play, due to an increase in homers, strike-outs and walks, as a result of harder throwing pitchers and sabremetrics. Yes the individual face-off between pitcher and batter is the engine of the game, but it's still a team sport. Small ball and defensive plays are some of the things I enjoy most. Fans can enjoy strike outs and pitcher performance, but I think offense, and a rich spectrum of it, is good for the game and also creates casual appeal. Watch a player like Ichiro, a contact hitter with power, very good defense, speed and can produce infield hits and bunts to perfection. To me he represents all that is good about baseball. Turns playing it into an art. MLB could possibly improve pace-of-play and offense by tweaking the game, but from what I read, it is in kind of a stranglehold with MLBPA over the issue, meaning no meaningful or even bad/pointless rules changes like the no-pitch walk. It is not expected to change much until the current collective labor agreement expires in 2021. Also, I think it's probably difficult to understand baseball if you've never played it yourself. The fact that it is more relegated now to organized leagues and not played as much anymore on streets and playgrounds, is not a good thing. Organized baseball is expensive to participate in, so not as inclusive, and kids tend to prefer a more playful, improvised way of playing ball instead of a highly competitive environment with strict rules. They can move up to that as they grow older. www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2017/08/07/more-whiffs-walks-and-long-balls-baseball-faces-an-existential-crisis/?.2c1982e1ed1f
You should do a "What happened to" series where you talk about player that may have fallen off do too various reasons, and talk about where they are noe
Honestly, moving the games to other platforms besides TV should be the first priority and the most important thing that could be done in order to get a younger audience. I have to watch illegal streams of games because I don't have a TV, let alone cable. If MLB games were broadcast in high quality to the internet I would pay for it so fast.
Dawson Wright nah I’m not talking about that overpriced shit. You think some 10 year old trying to get into baseball has $115 to spend just to watch baseball? They need some other form of monetization like advertisements. I’m not 10, I could pay for MLB.TV but I’m not going to overpay for it. I could get cable for just a little more and have it all. The point is, younger audiences aren’t going to pay for that. If you want a younger audience you need another way to broadcast your service
Redsoxking Ah yes for one team. From a 10 year old. Idk about you, but when I was 10 I liked baseball, but I liked so many other things for $80 that there was no way I was going to spend anywhere near $80 for it when I could save up for a DS or something else. The $35 price drop does nothing to lessen the alienation of kids from the sport.
Hey Dawson I'm like a young fan and I'm interested in making MLB videos on a different account in around June. Since that's when my school ends. I really love your vids and you inspired me to work on vids
Francis Brothers Films Definitely not better than football. Agree on Basketball, NBA is trash with weak competition, no parity, referee favoritism that suspects most to the league rigging games.
Mac Campbell Might be strange but I've always felt basketball's downfall is the lack of a 'touchdown' or homerun play. Closest I'd say is a 3 pointer, but it happens so often that it lacks any kind of celebration.
If Harper ends up in New York, that could help the MLB a lot. As much as no one wants it to happen and everyone hates the Yankees, Harper being in a huge market like that could help the league tremendously.
The obsession with keeping highlights off of Twitter and other social media unless they are "authorized" to post it or whatever is also hurting baseball. If someone wants to put a gif of Harper putting a ball into the next zip code or a physics-defying slider they need to be able to do that without fear of having their account suspended. MLB should realize that is how you get the younger audience to pay attention. We can't help that Trout is pretty boring personality wise but that is ok. Push the guys that have personalities. IMO it also hurts that some of the guys who have the best personalities in the sport do not speak English as their first language.
Yes of course Trout is confident any longtime or hardcore fan knows that and loves him. I have always said Trout is the face of the sport to harcore fans and Either Harper or Griffey (even though he has long been retired) is the face of baseball to casual fan. The reason I say this is becasue those 2 guys have very loud "swagger" I guess would be the word.. Trout is a quiet confident player that is one of the best to ever too it but to be the face of a sport you need to be polorizing and Trout is not that.
I disagree there on Harper... While he isn't Trout, Harper is going to command one of the largest contracts in history soon and you don't get that from hype. Trout doesn't desire to be the face of baseball he just wants to be one of the greats and that is 100 percent fine with me he brings plenty to the game without being all in the media. But the reality is baseball needs guys that are in the media promoting the game in other ways.
I think it is true I turned on sports center yesterday and they spent about 10 minutes on NFL and then the rest they talked about was either NBA of nhl
Baseball has always taken a back seat to other sports.. its a long grooling season and people dont have the attention span for it. Ive played baseball my whole life and can barely make it thru a whole game on t.v .. focus needs to be on ticket sales and stadiums, cause that where the real fun is. So many young stars and good teams. Baseball is at a high if you ask me. Everyone loves them some playoff baseball. You make great points in this video but its always been this way. Great vid thx
I believe the reason Baseball doesn't get covered as much on networks, while due to a number of factors, is mostly because the season is so long. When the teams are playing their 40th or 50th games its hard to care about whats happening knowing there is literally hundreds of games left. Shorten the season a bit and it could inject more drama into the season
