As the Super Bowl concluded on Sunday night, the unofficial start of the Major League Baseball season was underway. The moment doesn’t carry the excitement of pitchers and catchers reporting or Opening Day, nor should it. Still, for baseball fans around the country, when the Vince Lombardi Trophy is raised, it signals that joyous time once again. Football goes dark, and baseball quietly waits in the wings.
What continues to baffle me is why baseball doesn’t treat this moment the same way a large portion of its fanbase does. For generations, the end of the NFL season has served as a mental handoff to spring. It’s when fans begin plans to check box scores from Florida and Arizona, debating rotation depth, and convincing themselves that this year will be different. Baseball owns that transition emotionally, yet the league continues to treat it like an afterthought.
Sure, a fun tweet or Instagram reel released late at night following the Super Bowl can tease the upcoming season. That effort is better than nothing. But for baseball fans, and sports fans in general, why does Major League Baseball continue to swing and miss when it comes to ramping up excitement for its own product? More importantly, why does the league consistently fail to meet its audience at moments that feel tailor-made for relevance?
Sunday night offered yet another case study in how MLB misses opportunities presented by the Super Bowl’s conclusion.
This week, spring training begins. The boys of summer head to their respective camps to prepare for a new season filled with optimism, roster battles, and renewed hope. This year, spring training arrives with an added layer of intrigue, as it intertwines with the World Baseball Classic. The tournament showcases the sport’s best players in international competition, offering a rare chance to market baseball as both global and modern. It should be a marketer’s dream.
Instead, baseball once again whispers when it should be shouting immediately following the Super Bowl.
The league’s struggle has always been how it advertises itself to a broader audience. Baseball leans heavily on nostalgia and attempts to win over the same fans year after year. Tradition matters, but it cannot be the only strategy.
It is hard to grow stars when the league refuses to think beyond its comfort zone. Other sports manufacture moments. Baseball waits for them to happen organically and then wonders why fewer people are paying attention.
That’s what made Sunday night so baffling.
MLB recently signed a three-year media rights agreement with NBC Sports, a move that should have represented a fresh start and a rare chance to reset perception. Beginning this season, Sunday Night Baseball moves from ESPN to NBC and Peacock. That alone is a significant shift. NBC is now home to the lone primetime baseball game on Opening Day, with the Los Angeles Dodgers raising another championship banner while facing the Arizona Diamondbacks.
It’s a premium window, backed by a network that understands event television.
Earlier in the day, NBC officially announced that Clayton Kershaw, Anthony Rizzo, and Joey Votto would be part of its MLB coverage this season. Those are recognizable names, respected veterans, and legitimate ambassadors for the sport. MLB broadcasts will begin on NBC Sports in less than two months, yet the Super Bowl broadcast passed without a single meaningful mention of baseball’s return.
Silence.
I understand that the Winter Olympics are currently underway, and NBA All Star weekend is next week. You want the cross-promotion naturally leans toward the winter games and next weekend. That makes sense. But nothing for your brand-new MLB media partner? Not even a simple tease? For MLB to not step in and purchase an ad immediately following the conclusion of the Super Bowl on NBC, in front of what was likely more than 100 million viewers, borders on negligence.
This wasn’t just a swing and a miss. It warrants a suspension for lack of hustle.
The landscape wasn’t entirely barren. NBC did air a cross-promotion featuring network talent and shows dodging baseballs inside 30 Rock, with Aaron Judge appearing. It was clever and well-produced. The problem was timing. That ad ran during the pregame, roughly an hour before kickoff. From that point forward, nearly five hours of programming passed without even a passing acknowledgment that baseball season was next on NBC Sports.
That’s five hours of missed reminders. Five hours of missed impressions. Five hours where the sport could have reintroduced itself to casual fans who might only tune in a few times a year.
MLB will never draw the audience the Super Bowl attracts annually. That expectation is unrealistic. Still, with a new partnership with NBCUniversal, one would reasonably assume the league would receive more than a single 30-second pregame ad. Apparently, that assumption was misguided.
It also raises a broader question about strategy. How many baseball fans are realistically tuning into figure skating or bobsledding in hopes of catching a Sunday Night Baseball cross-promotional message that resonates? Cross-promotion only works when the audiences overlap, or when the message is strong enough to cut through. Baseball needs intentional placement, not accidental exposure.
The upcoming Major League Baseball season already faces enough challenges without self-inflicted wounds. Nine teams will introduce new distribution models for local broadcasts due to the fallout involving Main Street Sports Group. That shift creates confusion and potential added costs for fans, testing loyalty in markets that can least afford it.
Labor concerns also linger. Trust in the game remains fragile, with multiple players suspended for conspiring with gamblers. Competitive imbalance continues to widen, as wealthier teams stockpile elite talent while others struggle to keep pace. Even the World Baseball Classic faces uncertainty, with insurance complications leading some countries to reconsider participation altogether.
Against that backdrop, baseball needs good press, smart marketing, and a locked-in audience. The Super Bowl provided exactly that opportunity. Instead, MLB once again struck out looking.
Baseball doesn’t need the Super Bowl to survive. The sport will endure, as it always has. But it desperately needs moments like this to matter. When the biggest stage in American sports goes dark, the next act should already be stepping into the spotlight, not waiting for permission.
Instead, MLB once again chose silence over ambition and nostalgia over urgency. The season will arrive whether the league promotes it or not. Games will be played. Pennant races will unfold. October drama will come.
The real question is whether anyone beyond the already converted will notice.
Opportunities like Sunday night don’t come with a second at-bat. Baseball can’t keep fouling them off forever.
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
