MLB Loves To Hide Their Beautiful Game. You might notice something a little different on our blog’s “Header”. The pic on the top of the blog used to say that this was “an MLB blog.” I was sent an email from “MLB Advanced Media” stating that I must “Cease and Desist” from using MLB terms on my site. They thought that people would confuse this blog for a blog that is on the MLB website. That is how much they think of your intelligence.
I changed it, as you can see. I am not going to try to stick it to the man. I am just going to point out that the man is a moron.
I have not liked MLB’s internet policies since the first time I tried to find an MLB highlight on the internet. It turns out the MLB destroys all content that gets posted on Youtube. So the average fan, that wants to see highlights of a player that does not play in their city
1. Will not see it on their local news.
2. Can not see it on Youtube.
3. Can not find it on their favorite baseball blog or message board, because it is not embeddable from MLB’s website
4. Has to watch all of MLBTV, and hope to catch it.
5. Has to watch 1 hour of SportsCenter and hope that they show the play.
6. Go to MLB’s website and watch every single video one at a time, and search for it, if they have it.
The NBA on the other hand, has a firm grasp on the internet, and it’s power. As soon as you want to see an NBA blooper, highlight, or fan video, you will find it on Youtube, all over the internet on message boards, on Digg, Ballhype, Blogs etc… But who put those videos everywhere? The fans did. The NBA saves millions of advertising doll hairs by having their game in everyone’s face, and they are paying zilch for it. They are just allowing their fans to do it.
Here is a question that I want you to ask yourself. “What was the last funny thing an MLB player said or did?”. I know that it is an odd question, but please remember that humor is a huge part of baseball. If you do not count managers, like Ozzie Guillen, then you will most likely be hard pressed to come up with something very recent. Think of all the funny baseball movies, great Babe Ruth clips, and all the funny timeless quotes that we all heard/watched on Ken Burns “Baseball”, and look at how the game is packaged today.
“MLB Advanced Media” is anything but “Advanced”. They are hiding their beautiful game in an age where everyone wants things now. No one wants to search high and low for it. MLB most likely makes a tiny bit of money from their website full of pop up ads and unembeddable clips. I guarantee you that the NBA makes tons more, and they are not forcing anyone to only watch clips on their site.
If I were in charge of “MLB Advanced Media” I would do a little forward thinking. I would let anyone post clips, bloopers, highlights, videos and audio anywhere they would want to. Those videos will be there forever. The free advertising will be all over the internet long after we are all gone.
Am I mad that they made me change my blog header? No. Am I mad that instead of trying to develop ways to bring baseball to the masses, they are worrying about my blog header? … Yeah I am mad.
March 16th, 2010 at 8:39 am
Well stated!! MLB is run by people wi no passion for the game, their only passion is for money
March 16th, 2010 at 9:19 am
Awesome post. The old owners just don’t get it. Which is why their sport is not being played as much by young kids.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
“I am not going to try to stick it to the man. I am just going to point out that the man is a moron.” …gets my nomination for greatest quote of the year.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Good points. I’d love to post clips of great plays on my (only read by my family) blog.
BTW, I love that “MLB” still appears in your banner, while making it clear that it’s *not* an MLB blog.
Your “I am not going to try to stick it to the man. I am just going to point out that the man is a moron.” quote reminds me of Seinfeld:
Kramer: “What’s the little man inside you say?”
George: “My little man’s an idiot!”
March 17th, 2010 at 11:24 am
Regardless of whether MLB is being myopic in its policing of intellectual property, you are way off base in suggesting that “MLB most likely makes a tiny bit of money from their website”. In fact, they are making tens of millions. What’s more, some analysts have estimated the MLBAM could launch an IPO and raise billions of dollars. Like their approach or not, MLBAM is making baseball a ton of money.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:41 am
They also censor comments on the mlb blogs. When Olbermann attacked Simmons on his blog, they left all of the anti-Simmons comments but deleted all the anti-Olbermann comments. I cancelled my subscription.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:59 am
@Will – I think you’re confusing some issues here – just because MLBAM’s business makes lots of money doesn’t mean their web policies on policing videos and blog names are contributing anything towards that revenue stream. The whole point is they’re passing up an advertising opportunity to make you go to their site instead, is MLB as a whole making money on that particular strategy, both short term and long term? I don’t think it’s “way off base” to suggest it’s a poor strategy.
March 17th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
MLB sorry, baseball can stick it where the sun doesn’t shine on this one. The way they do things, they should be thankful for every fan they have.
March 17th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
MLB Advanced Media does well because of the MLB.TV service, which allows you to watch out of market games. No one’s saying games should be broadcast live for free. The issue here is user created commentary and high light reels.
My guess is that they are not making such a killing off ad revenue from people watching high lights. Certainly not enough to off-set the lost value in the free user-created advertising and enthusiasm that they cut off on the internet.
March 17th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Will is right that MLBAM is a solid moneymaker – there was some financial press coverage last year about how they’ve been the first sports league to effectively monetize the internet.
That said, they’re still way off base with their content policies. As far as I know, MLBAM makes their money primarily through subscription services like MLB.tv and Gameday Audio (both of which, by the way, I’ve heard largely good things about). They have historical game footage available for sale, but the library is limited (I just went to the website and looked some up; there were about 30 full games available from the 90s, a similar amount for the 80s, and maybe a dozen from the 60s), and I’ve never known a single person who has paid for that content. They have quite a few highlights available for free, but (as detailed above) they’re not embeddable, and MLB.com’s search engine is absolutely atrocious.
Beyond that, their refusal to allow people to post content means that even for simple highlights, the only ones available are ones that they choose to provide. Just the other day, I spent ten minutes digging around their website trying to find footage of Gene Larkin’s 1991 Series-winning hit, with no luck (at least, on MLB.com – I eventually found it buried 8 minutes into a 1991 Twins tribute video on YouTube that I don’t dare link here). Is there any chance that a moment like that isn’t available somewhere if the MLB content police don’t pull it? The irony is that they’ve actually been really good about leaving up all the highlights from the last few years when they’ve been posting them regularly – I can watch highlights of virtually any game from the last two years whenever I want, but heaven forbid someone upload their videotaped footage of the 1980s or 1990s.
I’d point out that the NFL is also rather draconian about web content, including a ridiculous policy that limits the amount of time NFL players can appear in video segments on non-NFL websites.
March 31st, 2010 at 7:43 am
you are so right
April 26th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
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April 27th, 2010 at 3:48 am
Ha ha ha ha… Very funny. I liked it a lot.
May 9th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I have been to your site several times now, and this time I am adding it to my bookmarks
Your discussions are always relevant, unlike the same-old stuff on other sites (which are coming off my bookmarks!) Keep it up!