MLB insider sounds alarm on baseball's problem

Major League Baseball is facing a popularity crisis, and no one seems to have a clear solution.

The sport is arguably at its peak — it’s better, the stars are bigger, and its reach is wider than ever before.

Yet, despite all this, the problem persists. ESPN MLB Insider Jeff Passan lamented this very issue during a recent appearance on the SI Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina, noting that while the game has improved significantly and more fans are attending, it still struggles to capture the attention of a broader audience.

“The NFL is such a monopolistic Goliath in American sports culture that I think it’s really hard for any sport to compete,” Passan said. “The NBA does the best job, and college football’s pretty close — it’s the little brother, but it does a reasonable facsimile. But the NFL is a behemoth. Where I think our bifurcated culture comes back is people only have enough time for expertise in a few areas and that investing in a sport is a really, really deep investment you have to make to discuss it, to understand it, and to know it.

“And I think ball knowledge, whether it’s basketball, whether it’s football, whether it’s baseball, the expectation of fans — particularly fans who spend a lot of time patrolling the internet — is you have to have a specific level of knowledge in that sport, in order to participate in the discussion. And baseball’s a really hard sport to understand and to know and to learn and to be a part of him. And in picking it up, if you don’t pick it up when you’re wrong, it’s a tough sport to pick up now and to connect to.

“I think the game itself is better than it’s been in a really long time. I think the stars are there. I think the pitch clock was a godsend for baseball — and more people are going to the game right now, so you do have more fans. But, man, is that enough? Is that enough to have long-term resonance in a sporting area that I worry media-wise is actually going to be shrinking and concentrating its resources even more in the tried and true sports that work on TV, and less on ones like baseball?”

Passan likened watching baseball to reading a novel, in stark contrast to the fast-paced, bite-sized consumption of the NFL — which is more like TikTok.

And yet, when Shohei Ohtani was on the verge of becoming the first member of the 50/50 club, that moment wasn’t easily accessible at the palm of your hand. Sticking with the novel analogy, signing up for an MLB TV account could be likened to getting a library card, but with an annual fee of $139.99—it’s not free.

Ultimately, though, this isn’t the crux of Passan’s argument; what he aimed to highlight is that MLB has an inventory problem.

“I think that’s where Major League Baseball needs to use its inventory a little bit better,” he says. “Like, if it has partners who are willing to distribute, or if it is OK giving that game away free — you want to entice people to buy a whole sports package, which is what Major League Baseball is trying to go toward a couple years down the road, how about you give those games away for free? How about we don’t have blackouts? How about you make accessing Bally’s games a little bit easier than it is right now?

“It’s a shame how difficult it is for consumers to access a product. And when that product is literally everything you have, what does that say about the way you’re treating the fan? The respect level you have for the people who want to pay you, who want to watch this. And you aren’t going out of your way, bending over backward, to absolutely firehose it into their house? Into their phone? Into everything? It’s a wasted opportunity.”

[ SI Media Pod ]

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