Many see the Dodgers' Mookie Betts as potentially being the face of baseball for years to comegetty images
Dodgers RF Mookie Betts won his second World Series title in three years on Tuesday, and former MLBer CC Sabathia called on the league to highlight Betts and other top players in more national campaigns to help develop their untapped star power. Sabathia, appearing on “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” said, “You know what the other leagues do really, really well? The big companies that sponsor their league -- they use their players in their commercials. ... The State Farm commercials where you have Dame Lillard and (Chris Paul). ... They do a good job of making these guys as household names. I don’t think MLB does a good job of that. I was watching an NFL game the other day. I love Larry Fitzgerald. Hall of Fame player. But he's got a commercial on national TV. How does Christian Yelich not have a commercial?” Simmons: “These commercials really give these guys life and make them seem larger than the sport. Baseball has really not been able to cross that line the last 10 years. ... Mookie, I think, is baseball's best chance, especially being in the Los Angeles market, what a smart guy he is. They should be using him as an asset” (“The Bill Simmons Podcast,” THE RINGER, 10/28).
MLB LEANING HEAVY ON SOCIAL: THE ATHLETIC's Bill Shea wrote MLB for years has been "criticized for its inability to market its best players," so baseball's "solution is to double down social media, second-screen platforms and technology." A "key piece" of this is the MLB Player Social Program, introduced last year, which "provides players with photos, videos, graphics and other highlight content." MLB said that so far, "more than 840 players have enrolled" and "nearly 130,000 pieces of content have been downloaded." MLB Senior VP/Marketing Barbara McHugh said that her team has "deployed more money, staff and resources" for online promotion, and there have been "creative campaigns with celebrities intended to appeal to younger audiences and multicultural fans." McHugh's team had "several crews in Texas for the World Series to capture new and different camera angles and content for social media use." Another new digital tool is MLB Film Room, which "allows fans to create and share highlight reels." It debuted in September, and MLB said that "almost half of fans creating custom videos are under age 34 so far in the postseason." Reds P Trevor Bauer said that MLB "doesn’t really do enough of, building a more human connection and making for a deeper fandom." Bauer: "Policing how players display their joy isn’t the way to grow MLB, particularly with younger fans. ... That’s not the direction the game needs to go, and it’s not the direction the game is going. The game is not going back" (THEATHLETIC.com, 10/29).
