MLB President of Business & Media Bob Bowman confirmed that the MLB Fan Cave "won’t be used any longer," as he "now views it as part of an old way of thinking about selling baseball," according to Ben Adams of SLATE. The league launched the Fan Cave in '11, and in subsequent seasons it was "repurposed, first as a concert venue," then the home of a one-season MTV2 show, which "featured offbeat videos" starring MLBers. It became the "source of some agreeable pranks, music videos, and at least one telenovela." But the Fan Cave now "looks like a dated vision of the future," and the league "has long since moved past it." Bowman said, "The underlying principle of Fan Cave was we needed music or something else to make people love baseball. And I think our philosophy (now) is baseball will help people love baseball." Adams wrote Bowman's comment "rings true." With the likes of Nationals RF Bryce Harper, Angels CF Mike Trout, Astros 2B Jose Altuve and Red Sox SS Xander Bogaerts, baseball "is in the midst of what Bowman calls a 'youth movement that this game hasn’t seen in generations.'" Adams: "Do we want to watch Harper goof off as an undercover reporter? Or do we want to watch instant highlights of him mashing dingers with a patriotic bat? I’ll take the latter." As for the vacated space that housed the Fan Cave, MLB’s lease on the property "doesn’t expire for another few years." The league has "professed an interest in hosting concerts and special events" (SLATE.com, 7/13).
