Guest Post: ESPY’s, All Star Thoughts and More…

James Gumina is more than halfway through his summer work with us. Some additional thoughts from an industry climber with solid opinions.

As a young person in an age of limitless information, there are always a lot of things on my mind, mostly sports-related, and often focused on what’s happening off the field. From marketing campaigns to broadcasts to business strategy, it’s a lot to process. So, to clear some space, here are a few things from this week that have stuck with me more than most. Whether you’re in the business, a media nerd, or someone who can’t stop thinking about how the game is packaged, I hope something here sticks with you, too.

It was a slow week for sports, with the exception of the MLB All-Star game, highlighted below, and the ESPYs, which I cannot bring myself to care too much about. My main takeaway from the ESPYs has been the number of viral clips I have seen of Shane Gillis’ monologue, and the over three million views it has on YouTube. While it has certainly brought more attention to him, I am not sure that it has helped the ESPYs promote their product, especially since most of what I have seen has been him bashing sports and the audience instead of uplifting it. Regardless, I did like Ilona Maher’s win and acceptance speech.

MLB All Star Weekend

In the bigger sports story of the week, MLB held its All-Star weekend festivities at Atlanta’s Truist Park. The first major event that I was paying attention to was Sunday’s draft. In recent years MLB has moved the draft to coincide with All-Star weekend, and attempted to make it into a spectacle on par with its counterparts in the NBA and NFL. While the on-camera product has improved drastically in this time, there is still one glaring issue: players do not show up. Unlike the NBA or NFL drafts, the players selected in the MLB draft have far more leverage to negotiate up to, and after, getting drafted. Players, especially high schoolers, routinely do not sign and postpone their MLB aspirations for a few years. There are a variety of other reasons for this, and Alden Gonzalez of ESPN wrote a great article breaking it all down. While in previous years this was a sore spot, it was not a major black eye for the league. This year not a single player showed up to the draft. As a viewer, I did not find that this significantly impacted my experience, but MLB will never be able to turn the draft into the spectacle it wants it to be unless they are able to convince draft hopefuls to show up and do all the media associated with the draft during All-Star Weekend.

Monday evening brought the Home Run Derby to the forefront. Nearly every year MLB tinkers with the rules of the derby in order to make it as TV friendly as possible, unfortunately I thought this year’s rules fell flat. The main feature of each round was a timer, which meant that players were rushing to hit as many balls as possible, often hitting the next one before the previous ball had landed. This created a frenetic sort of whiplash for me as I tried to see how far the previous ball went, while also not wanting to miss the action at the plate. I think the old 10 out format was the best, and lends itself to the most drama. Nailing the format is particularly important because the Derby could be huge for MLB’s All-Star festivities. Unlike the NBA Dunk Contest, MLB’s stars, like this year’s champion and MVP candidate Cal Raleigh, routinely participate in the derby. Baseball nailing a format where the players come first could drastically boost the product’s declining ratings.

The conclusion of the derby shifted focus to the All-Star Game itself. Unlike the offerings of the other major American sports, MLB offers a competitive product, driving ratings far higher than the other offerings. While the game does not look exactly like a regular MLB game, it is close enough, while ensuring that nearly all the players get the chance to step onto the field. While the days of a bitter AL vs NL rivalry are gone for a variety of factors, the best players still face off and the pitchers are still throwing their hardest. This year’s game was most notable for the Swing Off at the end of the game that saw the NL triumph over the AL. While reactions ran the gamut from positive to scathing, the reality was somewhere in the middle. I thought the concept and execution was amazing. The players flooding onto the field from the dugout and clubhouse added to the tension, and made it clear that while it is just an exhibition game, pro players cannot totally turn off their competitive streaks. While the names were not the MLB’s biggest stars, players like Judge and Ohtani were notably absent, I thought the product was compelling even without their participation. While seeing the brightest stars in that moment would have been electrifying, it is hard to complain when they want to maximize their short break during the marathon of the 162+ game season. The Swing Off was an excellent concept, and should be a mainstay of future All-Star games, even if the game’s most incandescent stars do not participate. Finally, if you have not seen the Hank Aaron tribute, do yourself a favor and watch it here.

Stray thoughts Adam Silver and the NBA board of governors on expansion. Lloyd Howell Jr. resigns as executive director of the NFLPA. Ruth Chepngetich, the women’s marathon world record holder, has been suspended for a PED masking agent.