Star Power

I read a story in the NYT the other day about baseball’s lack of star power.  Judging by ESPN rankings and Instagram, baseball players just don’t stack up against the competition.  Thank God I’m too old to care.

Star power translates into money, for owners and players alike.  If MLB falls behind the NFL and/or the NBA, teams will be worth less; ditto broadcast deals and product endorsements, to say nothing of salaries.  Again, too old to care about what’s not my problem.

Baseball works just fine, if you let.  I met White Sox infielder Wayne Causey once and got his autograph; that made Causey the center of my galaxy.  I wasn’t even in high school at the time.  Decades after I’d graduated, I was able to secure autographs on a baseball from the likes of Luis Aparicio, Luke Appling, Minnie Minoso, Billy Pierce, Bill Skowron, Walt Williams (my favorite Sox player of all time), Bill Veeck and Hoyt Wilhelm.  Instagram that.

What counts for the long-term health of the game is player availability.  Fans have always craved access.  Take away the interaction, and you threaten the game’s very foundation.  New stadiums are designed to minimize that essential player-fan contact, e.g., outside the clubhouse or parking lot.  Fan conventions help address that problem while ballparks closed to pre-game batting practice only exacerbate it.

Clare met her White Sox hero up close and personal.  I’m sure after she had her picture taken with Frank Thomas, it made all the rounds on social media.  What counted, though, was the initial contact, and ESPN doesn’t rank (ex-)player accessibility.  A pity that.