Policing MLB Culture Is Stifling Fan Growth

The sirens still blare, even in 2018.

They have for years and decades. Major League Baseball’s policing culture festers within the sport, sapping too much of the game’s natural emotion, personality and fun with every ridiculously issued citation. And it robs baseball of simple things that could help grow a sport that is bleeding fans they desperately need to cultivate and retain.

The San Francisco Giants, a team that for too long has taken it upon itself to be the MLB Police Department’s out-of-touch commissioner, gave the latest ticket to Yasiel Puig, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ at-times-enigmatic right fielder, on Tuesday night.

Puig’s offense: slapping his bat in frustration after fouling off a pitch. That was it, and similar to the previous evening when Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, long a loyal MLB policeman, shot Puig a glare for the same action.

Think what you must of Puig, but the fact is he’s been a good player – 127 career OPS+ – uninhibited by traditional baseball norms that say the robotic disposition is the only acceptable way to conduct oneself. And that rankles his team’s biggest rival.

So Giants catcher Nick Hundley had some words from Puig. Puig had some for him, along with a shove and a slap to the helmet. Benches cleared, and so on and so on. It was stupid the cause to the effect.

Then again, plenty who don’t subdue their emotion have felt the Giants’ heat, sometimes even at lukewarm temps. Back in 2009, slugger Prince Fielder, then with the Milwaukee Brewers, hit a walk-off home run against the Giants and led his crew in an explosion celebration that had people who don’t even watch baseball discussing it. It was one of the most memorable regular season home run celebrations ever.

Yet plenty of people – players, some old-school fans and writers – called it “disrespectful.” And the next year, the Giants proved how they felt about it during their first spring training game against Milwaukee, using Barry Zito’s “fast” ball to plunk Fielder, who said he knew it was coming because of how the game is policed. It was another example of the Giants anointing themselves law enforcement for the game’s culture.

The Giants aren’t the only team doing this. Teams and players across baseball do it, like Brian McCann, the uptight catcher with a reputation for wanting to teach other players about how they should conduct themselves – in his eyes. It’s exactly the reason Chicago Cubs rookie David Bote felt the crazy need to apologize if he offended anyone in the almost immediate aftermath of his walk-off grand slam joy earlier this week, because he was afraid of getting a play-the-game-the-right-way citation.

But here’s the thing: no kids are taking to the asphalt, sandlots or manicured fields in their neighborhoods and imitating McCann or Hundley. They imitate Puig, Fielder, Bote (in Chicago at least), Bryce Harper, David Ortiz, Jose Bautista – those who play the game with flair, joy and character.

With each of their highlights comes an imitation, and with each imitation, a young baseball fan that MLB so desperately needs.

While there are some positive trends when it comes to things like millennials supporting the game and increasing participation rates, MLB still has significant problems when it comes to distributing their product, marketing their stars and attracting a younger, more diverse fan base.

Baseball blackouts and viewing restrictions for streaming games – a great way to expand the game for younger audiences – are rampant, and in the game’s second-largest television market and home of one of last October’s Word Series participants – Los Angeles – the overwhelming majority of households can’t watch the Dodgers because of an inept television deal that only benefits the franchise’s bottom line, netting Dodgers ownership more than $8 billion over a quarter of a century and helping them field one of the most expensive teams in baseball.

Then there is the fact that many of the baseball’s stars, including Los Angeles Angels all-everything Mike Trout, would go unrecognized in most North American shopping malls. Add that to the game struggling to diversify its fandom and fledgling attendance this season – in person and on television – and one can reasonably figure the game cannot afford to alienate potential fans who are looking for characters and personalities to latch onto.

The NFL has been unflatteringly labeled the No Fun League, but last year it realized this kind of policing of the NFL’s individuality had gone too far.

“We saw a lot of interest in liberalizing and allowing the players a little more freedom to be able to express their joy, their individuality and, frankly, celebrate the game,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the time.

Baseball and its archaic policing system should take notice. If they don’t, neither will potential future fans.