Last week’s newsletter generated a great response.
But interestingly, my telling of how Major League Baseball gradually embraced creators over the past two decades got more response on X/Facebook than LinkedIn.
Some of that may have to do with the fact The New Yorker dropped a similar article with Jomboy at the center on Monday morning.
But I’m also chalking some of it up to the fact I feel like a fish out of water on LinkedIn.
Finding an audience past my immediate connections is something I’m struggling with and so I’m open to any and all tips on making the platform work for me.
At any rate, I left a few thoughts on the table when it comes to baseball and Internet content.
We were able to generate millions of page views and years of engagement during the Big League Stew years and Jomboy is enjoying a deserved moment in the sun for growing an independent site into a game-changing behemoth.
So many other sports media outlets, however, have struggled to make baseball content consistently work for them.
There are obviously a lot of hurdles to make any sport not named “NFL” work in a business sense and so I wanted to point out what baseball has going for it … as well as the factors working against it.
Five reasons MLB is made for the Internet
More games = more content opportunities: To me, this is the biggest one. There are 2,430 total games in a MLB season and no other sport can come close.* There’s a slate of games every night during the season which means daily chances for a big story or highlight that will dominate the news cycle.
*NHL has 1,312 regular season games, while the NBA has 1,230 and the NFL has 272.The oddity factor: It seems like baseball produces weirder moments than other sports, whether it’s a play you’ve never seen before, a fan doing something crazy in the stands or “unwritten rules” being violated.
Statistics!: Each baseball play starts from a static point and the sport’s records go back 150 years. The sport lends itself well to debate and comparison, even if the Stephen A. Smiths of the world largely ignore it. (This may also be a feature, not a bug.)
International reach: The NBA is still king in this arena when it comes to the Big 4 sports, but MLB has enough juice to hang with the NFL (or beat it) in many areas of the globe.
There are so many ways to enjoy the game: The Baseball Internet is made up of spreadsheet warriors, uniform wonks, ballpark travelers, dedicated historians and more. There’s a lot of niches, but each offers something to package for the casual fan.
Five reasons it isn’t
The game is inherently local, not national: I think parochialism is baseball’s biggest remaining problem. Everyone watches the NFL playoffs regardless of who’s in it. The same can’t be said for MLB, which has really struggled to get a consistent word in on the national conversation. Any drama concerning the Lakers or Cowboys will get more national attention than the Yankees or Dodgers these days.
And while Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge have reached Derek Jeter and A-Rod levels of fame, it’d probably take 50 posts about Mookie Betts to equal one storyline that concerns, say, Justin Jefferson.The fanbase is older: Yes, Jomboy and Bruce Bolt are helping. But there’s still plenty of room to improve and you’re dealing with a lot more competition for the eyeballs of the younger fans.
There are too many games: The sheer volume of games may be content factories for viral moments, but it severely limits the shelf life of discussing the actual game’s outcome. The NFL has a full week to dissect a game while the NBA and NHL often have 2-3 days. The result of a MLB game is often forgotten within 12 hours, which makes game content relatively disposable.
MLB stars aren’t great on social media: You’d think all of the time in hotels and on the road might make for an environment conducive to establishing an authentic social media presence. But baseball’s clubhouse culture largely pushes back on that.
The language barrier: Baseball’s top tier of stars features a lot of players who speak English as a second language or not at all. While that’s great for international reach and interest, it limits what interviews and podcasts can be consumed by the average American.
And that’s not even mentioning the looming labor stoppage in 2027 …
Still, there’s plenty of ways to make baseball content work in 2026. You just have to accentuate a strategy that builds around what the sport has going for it, rather than focusing on what’s working against it.
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Things I’m Currently Enjoying 🥇
CURRENTLY READING: “In The Days Of My Youth I Was Told What It Means To Be A Man” by Tom Junod
• The “Wrigley Winds” app now lets you put the Wrigley Field scoreboard clock on an iPhone widget.
• This Chicago guy who secretly recorded over 10,000 concerts and now that the online archive to prove it.
• This Golf Digest article on The Masters trying to become something for everyone … a strategy in stark contrast to how the tournament has operated for almost its entire existences.
• The Madison Mallards are wearing Big Lebowski uniforms and becoming the “Dudes” on July 16. (Fun fact: I worked for this team in college when they were called the Black Wolf.)
I’m building this newsletter in public. This edition went out to 109 people, up 10 from last week’s edition! Help me spread the word (and if you’re not signed up, you can do that here).