It is a direct approach.
It appears that Major League Baseball owners can no longer trust sportswriters to carry their water in pushing a narrative that the owners need to suppress players’ salaries. In days past, writers like Dick Young in New York would make sure the owners’ word would get out and since New York writers allegedly carried some prestige others around the country followed the New York writers’ lead. But that has changed, newspapers are dying and direct marketing is a far more effective tool, at least in the owners’ point of view. The owners are taking it to their TV and social media customers.
The owners have introduced a “Level the Playing Field” campaign on their MLB TV channel and on their social media pages. The “Level the Field” campaign is making a one sided owners’ case for a salary cap. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred sees no problem pushing his owners’ desires. “I think when you have a difficult public issue, particularly when the other side of the issue is being very public about what their views are on the negotiation, I think it’s incumbent on us to keep our fans informed of our view of the world,” Manfred said. “Particularly given sometimes the other side may not be completely accurate or fair in terms of their recitation of what’s going on.” Of course, “completely accurate or fair” is in the eyes of the beholder. Manfred is also pushing something called “momentum” although that is very hard to define but Manfred gave it a go. “We’ve got that momentum by listening to our fans and making changes that candidly the MLBPA was not interested in. Those changes have paid off in terms of creating that momentum. And the best way to lose momentum is to stand still.” The jockeying for public sympathy continues.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
