Major League Baseball was ahead of the curve when it came to streaming live games online. Since 2002, the league's in-house IT department—Major League Baseball Advanced Media—has been the go-to source for live streaming. In fact, HBO reached out to MLBAM for guidance when making HBO Now, Home Box Office's stand-alone premium subscription service. Without their expertise, stand-alone streaming for HBO might not exist. So why is the league that revolutionized live online video so strongly against the use of their media on social media? Is it pettiness? Lack of vision? Ignorance? I ask these questions because, only a few short years ago, the only place to get highlight footage was either on MLB.com or ESPN.
Major League Baseball is notorious for taking down GIFs, videos, and Vines created by third-parties, which has always been perplexing. Content creators took time out of their lives to create free content for baseball, and the thanks they got in return was a cease and desist complaint. Baseball was out of touch then. They've made strides in terms of social media during the 2015 season, though.
Somebody working for the MLB must've looked at their average fan's age—53—and realized they couldn't continue shunning their young viewership by blocking social media.
Their Twitter, YouTube, and Vine accounts have been surprisingly lit with highlights, funny captions, and engaging hashtags. They are finally coming around and giving the youth what they want: fire content. You don't want other people creating fire? Do it yourself. That's exactly what they've been doing, and it's been paying dividends. Case in point: the Jose Bautista bat flip Vine has 17 million loops and counting.
And, not long after, they tweeted a video of Yoenis Cespedes hitting a shot with the hashtag #TheYearOfTheBatFlip.
Yet, even where Major League Baseball starts getting things right, there are other ancient elements of the game that keep young people away. Take the untouchable unwritten rules of baseball, for example. The flipping of bats and the admiring of one's moon shot is frowned upon by MLB's main (yet, unsustainable) demographic—old, mostly white males. "You gotta play the right way, stop showboating," they scream from their imaginary pedestals of superiority.
Sam Dyson, the Texas pitcher who gave up Joey Bats' seventh inning go-ahead homer in Game 5 of the ALDS, said some of the most ridiculous shit I have ever heard during a post-game interview. When reporters asked him about the home run and what he said to Toronto DH Edwin Encarnacion as he tried to calm down the crowd, Dyson said:
“I told [Encarnacion] Jose needs to calm that down…just kind of respect the game a little more. He’s a huge role model for the younger generation that’s coming up and playing this game. He’s doing stuff that kids do in Wiffle Ball games and backyard baseball. It shouldn’t be done.”
Instead of focusing on his job, Dyson not only went up to Encarnacion after the home run, he also said something to Toronto shortstop Troy Tulowitzki when the inning ended. This caused both benches to clear. It all was for naught, too, as the Rangers ended up losing the game 6-3. Homie should've gotten a grip on his emotions. To paraphrase Dame Dash: How you a man worrying about another man? Worry about not giving up series-clinching yoppers in the future, my guy.
Dyson's right about one thing, though—the kids are gettin' jiggy with the bat flips. The video below is a compilation of Korean Little Leaguers flipping bats that could double as performance art:
While conducting an interview with Spike Lee and LLWS legend Mo'ne Davis, our very own Sean Evans asked Davis about the creative bat flips he's seen from the future of the sport and whether or not she gets mad when kids admire home runs.
Davis said she couldn't care less:
"I mean, it's kind of both. You get upset when you don't hit your right location and they hit it out but then it's all fun when you see different kid's bat flips and you do the same when you're hitting so there's no difference. You're just having fun."
Mo'ne is an African-American girl from Philadelphia—exactly the demographic Major League Baseball needs to tap into. They have the hood on smash when it comes to the Latino youth. Baseball is religion to us. You'd be hard pressed to find a Latino who doesn't fuck with beisbol. The sport is dying in the eyes of many black kids, though. As the percentage of African-American players in the Majors has dipped decade after decade—27 percent in 1975, currently 7.8 percent—young black kids have but a handful of stars to look up to.
Andrew McCutchen is the best and the most marketable of the bunch. Just look how happy these kids were when he gave one his his batting gloves:
That's pure joy right there.
The first game of last year's World Series drew 12.2 million viewers, their lowest number ever. Out of the three major sports leagues (sorry, NHL) the MLB has the oldest audience. The graphic below by The Atlantic breaks down baseball's demographics by age and gender (keep in mind these numbers are from 2013):
These figures should be alarming to every pundit fighting tooth and nail to keep any kind of swag in the game. MLB was more popular with the youth back in the '90s and early '00s because they did a better job marketing players and embracing the hip-hop community, which is primarily made up of African-American and Latino inner city youth. It's not like every player walks up to the plate to rap music or anything. The NBA recognized hip-hop's power in the '90s and hasn't looked back. That's the sole reason why 45 percent of the NBA's demo is under 35 years old, according to the same Atlantic study, and 50 percent of the MLB's demo is at least 55 years old and 83 percent white. Baseball needs to unlock the swag.
Ken Griffey Jr. was not only a player of a generation, he also had stylish Nikes, an infectious smile, and wore his hat backwards. The same could be said about Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson. All three of those guys had a certain swagger and the fly merch to match. They had something black and brown kids were able to relate to. In contrast, there is not one ball player today with a sneaker I would want to wear with street clothes. I commend Jordan Brand for giving guys custom spikes, but that hasn't helped the inner city gain interest in a boring game.
Which leads me to baseball's final issue as to why kids don't fuck with the sport—speed.
Or, rather, the lack thereof. I love baseball but, man, it's boring more times than not, especially considering the fast-paced times we live in. We live-tweet sporting events nowadays and frankly, baseball isn't built for it. The games are too long and there are too many breaks between pitches. Thankfully, they've been tinkering with speeding up the game by putting time limits on hitters and pitchers, but those efforts are still in their infantile stages.
With all that being said, the way MLB has been handling their social media efforts during the 2015 playoffs has been exceptional. If they can somehow find a way to take the same "change is good" attitude towards promoting their black stars and speeding up the tempo of the game, there's a chance Major League Baseball can win back some of their young minority fans.
If they don't, well, the NBA is still there to take their audience (and profits) after baseball season ends.
