It’s been yet another young season where a major concern of fleeting viewers from Major League Baseball has risen. This has had the Commissioner Rob Manfred and the MLB owners scrambling for ways to inject life into the game. That life is getting more viewers in the oh so coveted 18-45 year old demographic. Yet therein lies the biggest problem with the MLB. This may sound confusing because why is that a problem? Is it a problem to get a younger group of adults to enjoy, watch and make memories with America’s pastime? Well no, that isn’t the problem. The problem is that the MLB is so outwardly desperate for these viewers.

This has allowed them to do things that upset the niche, loyal fanbase that still gets excited for baseball. The diehards that love the week of the Winter Meetings, mark down the day pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, pay attention to position races in the spring, and grudgingly follow the long baseball season that resembles life in such a purely romantic way no matter how their team is doing. The main thing is the pressing issue of making a slow game, while not historically always a slow game, faster for people who want to spend their time and or money with the MLB. 

Another way of MLB’s marketing to the targeted demographic is the streaming exclusive games. That is on either platforms of Facebook or Youtube. Hey great idea, if this generation was clamoring to watch the games but they aren’t. I may sound a lot older than the 24 year old that I currently am due to my tone throughout this, but I have never watched an exclusively streamed MLB game since the inclusion of this model since it began in 2017. I’m not against this general idea though. It is just nonsensical for baseball which is a sport that had a 12% dropoff in television viewers from 2019 to 2021. I can assure you that a large percentage of those viewers aren’t watching for more than the fact it can’t be streamed. People are just tuning out of the game for the “competition” albeit movies, binge worthy TV, the NFL, the NBA, and so on and so forth.

Despite seeing the market for streaming, the MLB has one of the worst social media marketing campaigns as a whole. This is the same league that has a diverse group of stars in Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Fernando Tatis Jr., Vlad Guerrero Jr., Ronald Acuna Jr., Aaron Judge, Mookie Betts, Jacob deGrom, Juan Soto and many more. Hell, they even have the Japanese Babe Ruth in Shohei Ohtani. Yet these exciting players have not been shared around the internet in the amount that is deserved or gained followers at a growing rate. If the MLB is really worried about getting people my age to be invested then they need to hook them on their phones. 

This theory compounds the game into bite sized highlights that leave millennials and generation Z’ers wanting more. As well as promoting pre and post game interviews, podcast interviews and whatever other media that their stars partake in. The game will most likely never become faster but trimming it down into the best clips advertising the talent of the game is a great idea. The idea is in motion because I see it but the volume and creativity needs to increase. The presence needs to increase on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Reddit. Start throwing stuff at the wall. I’m sure they have had at least preliminary conversations about this because this is multiple billion dollar businesses under the umbrella of the MLB. So I’m not saying I have this completely original idea but the execution and effort does not seem to be there. 

While doing this the league should emphasize the strategy that comes within the game. One of the biggest parts that the diehard baseball fan knows all too well. That is part of the reason that the MLB postseason can be argued as the most intriguing postseason in sports. What I mean by this is that just straining the importance of 3 people who are always involved in each play would be beneficial to keep all fans/viewers engaged. The three people I’m talking about are the pitcher, catcher, and batter. Like I’ve learned through watching, strategy can change pitch by pitch in any at-bat. I just believe that emphasizing this keeps the attention of the fans that tune out the game due to the lack of action and movement on the field.

Coming off the eye-sore of the winter lockout, the sticky stuff pitcher situation of last season and multiple claims from players that the ball is deadened this year shows that baseball has more than its fair share of problems. I would clearly argue that the biggest problem is MLB’s desperate attempts to garner younger fans while knowingly or unknowingly alienating their loyalists. At the end of the day it is a business and businesses stay alive because of return customers. The trajectory that the league has been on doesn’t show that they will entertain the opinion that I have here. That could be the nail in their coffin. All I know is that us diehards will surely be watching to find out.