The MLB Draft Was On Last Night…REALLY!!
It's amazing what you will there isn't too much going on in local sports. Besides watching Carlos "CY" Silva mow down a team the Cubs have had problems beating all year long, the MLB DRAFT is all that was worth the price of admission last night. The entire production is so different from any of the other drafts of the remaining four sports.
The NFL DRAFT is the king of kings when it comes to a prime time sporting event without an actual sport being played. The drama, the money and insider after insider breaking down exactly what is going on makes it the event that it is. Plus with year long shows strictly based on NCAA Football and NFL Football on major sports networks, there is no escape from all things football and how they mesh together.
The NBA DRAFT although similar to the NFL does not pack the same punch as far as a prime time event. This draft has a much quicker pace which is hell for people trying to follow on social networks and talk amongst their friends, but I like it. The only problem with the NBA Draft is the resumes of the top picks are normally one successful year of college because of the rules of the NBA. It's silly to me that the NBA mandates that a player entering the draft cannot come out straight from high school (Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James to name a few). If a player is that good at the age of 18, what is one year in college and in life going to change?
I'm not going to lie.....the NHL DRAFT is not on the TIVO list. This is the only comparable "draft" event besides the MLS draft where most of the people who decide to tune in have no idea about who is who and why teams do what they do.
If MLB truly wants to make something of their draft an event that people will want to tune into rather than re-runs of The Big Bang Theory (on CBS2), they need to work with the NCAA and generate interest in college baseball.
That's the biggest problem with the MLB draft is that the top prospects are not known by the masses like the NFL/NBA are. 99% of baseball fans knew Stephen Strasburg when they saw a special on him. 99% of baseball fans knew last night's #1 overall pick Bryce Harper dropped out of high school to play junior college ball because there was a blurb about it in today's Suntimes. The demand is simply not there for college baseball and therefore it translates to the MLB draft.
Maybe instead of talk about re-aligning the divisions, more research about steroid testing and how to further improve the all star game.....how about planning for the future of the game making the future stars of the game a priority.
-RoCk
twitter.com/rock_mamola
Rock Mamola is the Associate Producer of The Mully And Hanley Morning Show and co-host of The Joe O And Rock Show on WSCR 670AM
