By KYLE ADAMS
Staff Writer
With the playoffs right around the corner, it is the time of year that everyone’s eyes start to turn back to baseball.
I would like to bring the focus to the “eyes” part of that phrase. Eyes are the most important part in expanding the game of baseball.
People watch playoff games for the basic fact that it is a playoff game, no matter where the team is from. Watching playoff games are often bonding moments within families. Father and son, grandparents, siblings, moms and everyone else take part in the tradition.
During the playoffs, the game is at its best. They are the best teams on the biggest stage. This is where MLB has the greatest opportunity to appeal to expanding the game to a broader fan base and the younger generation of athletes.
In January of 2015, the landscape of Major League Baseball changed. Longtime commissioner Bud Selig stepped down from the high office and Rob Manfred’s reign began. As Selig was on his way out, we saw new TV deals reach an all-time high. This seemed like a win, but not exactly.
When Manfred took office, he laid out some very specific goals, not only to the fans, but to the younger generation of kids. Manfred’s goals were based in expanding the popularity of Major League Baseball, but also in making playing baseball more popular to kids.
Something that is very difficult to accomplish, especially after the deals that Bud Selig helped orchestrate at the end of his term. Manfred said in a letter to fans, “This notion that baseball is the game of children is central to my core goals as Commissioner.”
Manfred’s plan has been to revive baseball across America. Now granted that is something of a difficult task, Manfred has not been able to make much progress.
The best way to expand any game is to get people to watch the game. You don’t gain followers without any exposure, after all.
“My top priority is to bring more people into our game — at all levels and from all communities,” said Manfred in a letter to fans. “Specifically, I plan to make the game more accessible to those in underserved areas, especially in the urban areas where fields and infrastructure are harder to find.”
Most of Manfred’s success so far has been to help young athletes, who already want to play baseball, to have access to playing fields and facilities.
The power of television is different though. Television expands the game to people who may not have had any interest in playing.
In 2014, Major League Baseball entered a deal with Fox Sports Media Group that gives FOX the rights to the World Series and the All-Star Game. The key here is “Fox Sports Media Group,” because not all of the games are broadcasted entirely on FOX.
The Wild Card games, Division Series and Championship Series games are split amongst networks. According to the agreements, Turner, FSMG, ESPN and the MLB Network will all have rights to playoff games.
The games that are broadcast directly on FOX, ESPN and TBS are not an issue, since those channels are all included in basic television carrier packages. FSMG is scheduled to broadcast a majority of the games, that they have the rights to, on one of their minority networks, Fox Sports One.
FS1 is not included in most basic television packages. The same can be said for the MLB Network, their own station. A significant number of playoff games are scheduled to be broadcast on channels that only a percentage of people have access to.
Major League Baseball is placing the dollar over the expansion and popularity of their game. Now this is something that every other professional sports industry if guilty of; however, in a time where expanding the game is one of the biggest missions of the Commissioner, maybe sacrificing a couple of dollars is necessary.
I honestly feel for Rob Manfred because I think that he has great intentions. He is suffering from the doings of Bud Selig.
I hope Manfred is successful in creating new TV deals; ones that make playoff games more available to greater audiences. It is the only way to truly get the best part of baseball into the inner cities and into the homes of people who otherwise wouldn’t have the means of watching those games.
The current Fox deal runs until 2021, so we will still be feeling Selig’s impact for a while.
