Despite very little (basically zero) anticipation, the 2020 MLB Draft kicked off yesterday, giving us the first real baseball-related content in months. The MLB draft has never received the same recognition or hype as the NBA and NFL drafts, understandably so, but I’m still one of the proud die-hard baseball fans that does get excited for it. However, the enthusiasm for this year’s draft did not match previous years’ for a couple of reasons:
- Society has been concerned with racial injustice the past couple of weeks, as it should’ve been. Social media has been absolutely dominated by posts about racial and class inequality lately, so everything not related to that was pretty much filtered out of everyone’s timeline.
- I’m sure MLB Network and ESPN have been reminding viewers about the draft for weeks now, but I, along with many people, have not been watching sports networks – what’s the point? ESPN talk shows are hardly bearable when there are actual sports on, so I can’t imagine how many topics they’ve recycled over the last few months. Probably just more debates about why MJ is the goat and how Tom Brady keeps his body in such great shape at his age – we’ve heard it all before.
- MLB’s social media team did a terrible job promoting it. Leading up to the draft, the @MLB Instagram account only posted three times, all of which were within the same 24-hour period. They should’ve been hyping this thing up for WEEKS! There is literally nothing else to talk about in the baseball world, so why wouldn’t they have been reminding us about the draft and promoting the top prospects as much as possible? Just another example of MLB fumbling the bag in regards to growing the game.
Even though MLB could have done a much better job of promotion leading up to the draft, now that it’s started, I think it’s what was needed to advance negotiations between the owners and players for the 2020 season. I’ve been pessimistic about there being a 2020 MLB season at all since it seems like the two sides are so far apart on the salary issue, but since the draft started, I have confidence that a deal will be met. Going online and seeing that there is actual baseball news along with player highlights and the reaction videos from guys getting drafted, things just feel right.
These reactions are so wholesome. 😀 #MLBDraft pic.twitter.com/7FWHWLvSC6
— MLB (@MLB) June 11, 2020
How could the video above not get you excited for baseball?? Even though most of these guys won’t reach the majors for a couple of years, it still gets me fired up for the future of the sport and makes me want the MLB back right now. I know that MLB players and owners share my passion for this game, but I hope they do the right thing and reach an agreement. As fucked up as this year has been so far, if the players and owners could just give a little bit and bring baseball back this year, it would help in establishing at least some sense of normalcy to the world.
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