Last Friday, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick wrote an article intended to pump the tires on Shohei Otani, baseball's next big thing.
He introduced the article by describing the scene through the eyes of two-time MVP Mike Trout as he walked onto the field for a Spring Training practice. Crasnick described that Trout bounded up the clubhouse steps onto the field with no media presence in sight, highlighting the enormous obstacle that stands in the way of baseball executives as they try to adapt a sport that was invented during the Civil War to the age of Twitter and Netflix: lack of publicity.
Even the sport’s biggest star garners zero media attention. If you don’t believe me, google “Mike Trout” and click on “news.” As of now, there have been three articles written about the future Hall of Famer in the last two weeks. This is unbelievable considering what production like his has meant for the celebrity of past baseball stars.
So why isn’t he a household name? There are a ton of factors that contribute to the lack of marketability for Major Leaguers, the most obvious being pace of play and unwritten rules that prevent displays of passion during games. Where the MLB is really shooting itself in the foot is on social media. Right now, the MLB does not allow people who aren’t directly associated with the Major League to share highlights on Twitter. What logical sense does it make to prevent an audience of over a billion people from seeing videos of the MLB’s most exciting moments?
At the end of the day, baseball missed out on Mike Trout. It had the opportunity to make him a megastar and a pop icon, but he is instead a no-name outside the baseball world. The MLB can’t turn back time, and it can’t magically make him a name that everyone knows. Instead, baseball’s executives need to capitalize on the next wave of young stars before them.
In that same article, Crasnick highlighted the media frenzy surrounding two-way star Shohei Otani, who has been the source of media buzz from markets (both sports and otherwise) around the country. He has been dubbed the next Babe Ruth for his ability to both hit and pitch at an elite level.
The hype surrounding Otani comes right on the heels of the monster season, and more importantly monster media coverage, of Aaron Judge. Throughout the duration of last season, Judge was the most hyped-up athlete in professional sports, something a baseball player hadn’t been in a long time, even during the summer months.
So what will the MLB do with the 6’9” king of New York and the potential two-way superstar from Japan? Both have already become media darlings around the sports world, but will they become worldwide icons or not? Will they be able to sells shoes branded with their logos or not? Only time will tell.
(Photo courtesy of NYMag)
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