Seton Hall
The relationship between Major League Baseball and Little League
Date: August 18, 2019By: Joe Cammarota
This week in Major League Baseball, major league teams like the Pirates and Cubs are meeting up with Little leaguers in Williamsport for the Little League World Series. This event is to not only expand baseball, but to help out the community and inspire the young athletes.
The Pirates and Cubs played in Williamsport late last night, and before the game players from both Pittsburgh and Chicago went out and took time to speak to some little leaguers. Players like Joe Musgrove helped show some of the young athletes how to throw some pitches and gave them good life advice.
One thing that is really cool about the Little League World Series is that they it is not divided between genders, as boys and girls play together. Maybe one day we will see this in the Majors.
How does the Little League Classic and other marketing techniques that Major League Baseball put out actually expand the audience?
Not only is there the Cubs and Pirates game going on, but it is also players weekend in the MLB. This is when teams get alternative jerseys to wear and they get to choose their own nickname to be on the back of the jersey. This is appealing to the younger crowd, as the average MLB audience is over 50 years old.
This is one of the ways Major League Baseball is trying to connect to the younger generation. Does this work well? Probably not, but it is an awesome way to let the athletes express themselves.
One of the big issues that hinders baseball from being one of the bigger sports is the fact that they do not have many truly marketable players. The NBA has Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and many others. The NFL has Tom Brady, Antonio Brown, and Aaron Rodgers.
The MLB does not have players like this. Their best player, and possibly the greatest baseball player of all time (not an exaggeration), Mike Trout plays for a below average team on the West Coast and does not want to be marketed. Trout likes to keep to himself. Another big-time player is Bryce Harper. He does a good job of being marketable, but is not one of the nicest people around, and is not at the top of his game anymore.
Another big problem that the MLB is trying to fix is the pace of play. Baseball games have a lot of breaks in them, and the younger generation wants constant action. This is one of the reasons the NBA is becoming the most popular sport, and even hockey is surpassing baseball. The issue is that baseball to the core is not a fast-paced game. A lot of the pace of play rules that are being implemented only anger the core fans, and do not bring in new ones.
One last thing that the MLB is doing is promoting the home run. This is beneficial as everyone loves home runs. As of right now, we are in a home run renaissance, which is great for baseball. This will help the game moving forward, as will most of the other efforts the MLB is doing.
Joe Cammarota can be reached at joseph.cammarota@student.shu.edu.
