As much as Major League Baseball keeps pushing Alex Rodriguez on us, sports fans keep trying to push him back.
Nonetheless, A-Rod remains one of baseball’s most recognizable names despite being nearly five years removed from retirement. But what does that mean for a sport struggling to keep the attention of younger generations? According to Minnesota Timberwolves 19-year-old budding star Anthony Edwards, not much.
Last year, A-Rod struck out in his bid to purchase the New York Mets. Last week, the three-time MLB MVP settled on the next best thing as he reportedly struck a deal to buy the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves. Rodriguez and friend Marc Lore have 30 days to finalize an agreement to purchase the Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx from current owner Glen Taylor.
A megastar heading to Minnesota to help a rather dormant NBA franchise in the Timberwolves, the players must be very excited!
“I don’t know who that is,” Edwards told reporters Tuesday night.
Not exactly a glowing endorsement for Major League Baseball, and this is the league’s biggest problem. The game might be old, slow and boring, but their detriment is their inability to market stars. Mike Trout, Fernando Tatis Jr., Mookie Betts, Juan Soto, Jacob deGrom: as great as they are, they can’t carry a team to championships. Baseball remains a sport where the name on the front of the jersey is more important than the name on the back, while modern fans of many sports are more interested in the individual player than the team.
It probably also isn’t a very good sign for the league that a 20 year old cannot name the face of Major League Baseball’s signature television product, Sunday Night Baseball. ESPN shouldn’t feel much better.
A-Rod tried to play it cool, responding on Instagram with “Hi Anthony. I’m Alex!” But this had to crush Rodriguez, a man rumored to have a painting of himself as a centaur hanging over his bed. A man who tried to warm up to New York by sunning himself in Central Park. A man who did a photo shoot kissing himself in a mirror. Vain isn’t enough to describe the most ego-centric player in Major League Baseball history.
The sale price of the two franchises is expected to be around $1.5 billion and if it goes through, A-Rod and Lore will be 50-50 partners. Hopefully it does, because sports ownership desperately needs diversity much more than it needs starpower. But the next time a sports broadcast, podcast, radio station, media or entertainment outlet decides to recycle another big-name talent, think again, because your target audience might not even recognize the name.
