“One Man’s Opinion” by Gordon Curvey
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I am a very big sports fan. A sports junky. My number one sport I love is basketball. By far basketball is my favorite sport followed by football and then baseball.
When the NBA season ends as a sports fan I get depressed. I really do. But thank god for NBA TV.
Readers I think the NBA does the best job in marketing their stars. Followed by the NFL and far far far behind is Major League Baseball. The question is why doesn’t MLB market it’s stars better?
When you watch TV you can see KD, CP3, Blake Griffin, Farve, Westbrook, Lebron, D-Wade, Aaron Rodgers, our own Seahawks Richard Sherman and Russell Wilson, Manning, Shaq and more doing commercials for sneaker companies, beer companies, fast food companies and more.
But you do not see hardly any baseball players doing commercials on TV. It is amazing. Heck even old NASCAR legend Richard Petty is doing commercial and so are NASCAR drivers Dale Jr and Danica Patrick are doing commercials.
Do we see former guest on “Music Inner City TV” Andrew McCutchen doing commercials? No, Mike Trout? No. Matt Kemp? No. Felix Hernandez? No. Another former guest Adam Jones? No. David Ortiz? No. Bryce Harper doing commercials? No. I can go on and one. Baseball players are no shows when it comes to national product marketing.
The question is why is this going on readers? When I was young I had pics on my wall of my favorite sports star I saw on TV but kids of today do not see baseball players on TV. They see NFL and NBA players. I should say the kids in the inner city do not see McCutchen or Kemp or Jones. They see Lebron or Blake or KD or CP3 or now Curry etc.
I can go to a inner city kid and ask him or her have they heard of McCutchen most likely they will say who? But of course they I can ask the kids who is Curry and so on they will know him, his points per game and the number he wears!! Real talk folks. The kids will basically know nothing about baseball. This is a problem in my opinion for MLB.
MLB does a TERRIBLE job in marketing. The league is living in 1954 when it is 2015. With the 7th innings stretch and the singing of “America The Beautiful”. And organ playing and “corny” commercials. Football and basketball realizes this is the “hip-hop generation” They do a great job in reaching the inner city kids. Playing Drake and Kendrick Lamar and Usher and Meek Mill etc and playing classic soul artists like Marvin Gaye and James Brown and Wilson Pickett and the Isley Brothers etc at games in arenas in the U.S.
Meanwhile baseball plays AC-DC and ZZ Top and Elton John and The Rolling Stones etc at games. Heck when the Yankees win a game at home they play a Frank Sinatra song “New York”. Young inner city kids ain’t feelin that!!
Young inner city kids think baseball is a very slow boring game and they think players wearing there baseball pants jacked up to their knees is not “cool” looking. That is the way baseball players wore their pants back in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s and 60’s and more. MLB has to wake up and smell the coffee and get hip.
Kids need to see baseball stars on commercials for McDonald’s and Burger King and Domino’s and Buick and Chevy and Jack N The Box and Wendy’s and Nike and Gatorade and more like they see Serena and Dr J and many more. Until then the kids in the inner city will continue to run to football and basketball by age 12 or 13. It seems MLB does not care but guess what readers? They should look at look at comic Chris Rock baseball piece on from HBO on You Tube. Rock is telling the flat out truth folks!!
