Major League Baseball has a serious marketing problem and they should let Trevor Bauer continue to drive the obvious solution.
Major League Baseball won’t let Trevor Bauer have fun and that is a huge mistake.
On Wednesday afternoon, Bauer announced on Twitter that he would be sporting a very unique set of custom cleats for his start. On one cleat read the words “Free Joe Kelly” and on the other, the image of Kelly taunting Carlos Correa after striking him out. Bauer planned to wear the cleats and then auction them off with the proceeds going to a charity of Kelly’s choice.
Really awesome plan right? Have some fun, take a shot at the Houston Astros and donate some money to an organization that needs it.
Unfortunately, upon learning of Bauer’s plan, Major League Baseball informed him that he would be subject to discipline and ejected from the game before it even started.
And by doing so, Major League Baseball made the situation infinitely worse.
Trevor Bauer is doing everything in his power to grow the game of baseball. He takes it upon himself to market players and content creators. He tweets constantly and engages with baseball fans. And Wednesday, he tried to take a page out of the NBA playbook and create some drama to get people talking about baseball.
Well, his plan worked. Maybe not in the way he planned. But everyone had something to say about Major League Baseball refusing to approve his cleat design.
Sure, Bauer was obviously taking a shot at the Houston Astros. But there wasn’t anything offensive towards them on the cleats. Maybe they crossed a line, maybe they didn’t, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better way to draw attention to the second half of a Wednesday doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Kansas City Royals. Bauer may be a clearcut Cy Young favorite but even that’s not enough to make casual fans tune into that game.
You know what is though? Getting people to tune in by relating with them about hating the Astros. Then, once they’re tuned in, they can marvel in Bauer’s dominant seven inning shutout.
The point behind all of this is that Bauer is trying to drive the conversation about baseball. And Major League Baseball doesn’t like that.
But the league has shown little to no ability to keep up with modern day marketing. Mike Trout, for instance, may be the best player to ever lace them up on the field. But how many casual fans could pick him out of a lineup?
If Major League Baseball wants to regain its popularity with the youth of America, it needs to let guys like Bauer market themselves. It needs to let him take shots at the common enemy so that everyone on Twitter has some jokes to make.
Don’t stifle one of the few vibrant personalities in the game. Let Bauer draw attention to the game. Let him start some drama.
Just let the kids play.
