It seems to be in recent years that MLB has been looking at giving the game a face-lift in order to attract a younger generation of fans. From new rules, adjusted postseason formats and a recently adopted slogan of “let the kids play.” According to a 2019 Neilsen Sports report on Generation Z fans, baseball has one of the largest generational gaps in interest. They have found that 41% of people between the ages of 24 and 64 are interested in the sport, but only 27.8% of Generation Z (those between 16 and 24) are interested. The average age of the MLB fan is 57, which is higher than both the NFL and NBA.
One of the initiatives MLB has made in order to grow the game between fan and player was starting Players Weekend back in 2017. Baseball is a sport that is very tied down to tradition and set to a specific set of guidelines, thus making it hard for some players to express themselves. Players Weekend looked to break down that barrier and let the full personality of the player come forth. MLB created new and modernized jerseys, very similar to youth league ones. One of the great additions to these jerseys was the inclusion of players nicknames they were called throughout the organization, while even some had an emoji. Players like Javy Baez would proudly wear “El Mago” on his back or Shane Bieber hilariously trolled fans by wearing “Not Justin.” Players were additionally given the okay to wear and use non traditional cleats, equipment and bats. They wanted the players personalities to be on full display during this weekend. Many players ordered custom cleats or had young athletes design their cleats for them. It really should be called Player and Fan Weekend because that is really the main goal of this event. It’s for the player and fan to become closer with each other. When you know someone by their nickname, you instantly feel closer and more connected with them. There are a lot of players on a team and you may not know all the details about one, but this event truly brings out the uniqueness of each individual player, thus giving the young fan a more personal look into who their favorite players are. During the Little League World Series, they schedule a game to be played dubbed the “Little League Classic.” MLB wanted to celebrate youth baseball and in doing so invited all the little leaguers and their families to watch the game at historic Bowman Field. In return the MLB players from that game earlier that day would attend the little leaguers games and cheer them on. I would love to see a mini-documentary of the the teams picked to play the Little League Classic much like the NHL’s successful series of its “Road to The Winter Classic.”
Players Weeknd is truly a great push to bridge the gap between baseball and it’s younger fans. I think they are going to continually adapt and change in order to grow the game of baseball. Unfortunately per last years Players Weekend, the jersey choice for teams left a bad taste in people’s mouth. For some reason MLB chose monochromatic all black and white jerseys, making it not just hard to read the nicknames of the names of the players but just plain ugly. Nothing was unique about them at all. Instead of celebrating the individuality of a teams city and its players. It was disappointing because it showed a lack of creativity. It’s a new year and I’m sure now that Nike has taken over the design of all MLB uniforms, they will have something good in store for the players and fans. Nike has never shied away from creative changes as you can see from their time remixing NFL and NBA jerseys. I do love this idea of having fan submitted jerseys though. We are in a technological age where a contest can be put into place rather easily. Im sure certain teams would have guidelines the contest would have to follow but other than that let the kids imaginations run wild. It would most certainly start a hype train behind the whole Players Weekend that would be unique to each city and team. From the submissions, to the voting, and finally the unveil. It wouldn’t be a quick weekend and it’s done. You want the whole baseball community involved leading up to it. Having the fan that submitted their jersey unveil them on their favorite players in a press conference would be a dream come true. When you have contests like this that gets the fans involved, it shows them that you care and appreciate them as an organization. That’s really what Players Weekdend is about, growing the game of baseball to our youth and bringing fan and player closer together. MLB is in great hands with many young and exciting players. More and more players are coming up and showing their explosive personalities. Fans love to watch and interact with these personalities. Next we need to keep these players micd up during the season. The game of baseball is played with a lot of downtime and within that there’s so much going on that as a fan we can’t hear or see. I know every fan is hungry to listen to how Anthony Rizzo reacts to a 2-1 change up or how Freddie Freeman knows he’s going to score on a pop up because the wind is blowing. It’s little things like that that bring huge smiles to our faces and creates a better relationship with these players
The Washed Up Athlete 