The PR Problem in Baseball

When the Houston Astros won the World Series late in the fall of 2017, the country rallied around the young team that had brought home a much-needed win to a city recently devastated by Hurricane Harvey. Much like the New Orleans Saints Super Bowl win following Hurricane Katrina, the story wrote itself. It was yet another prime example of the way sports can unite us in even the toughest of times.

Fast forward to this week, just over two years later, and that story will long be forgotten, overshadowed by an electronic sign-stealing cheating scandal that is bound to rock the team and the league for years to come.

The sport once known as “America’s pastime” has fallen under harsh criticism from sports analysts and fans alike, who feel Major League Baseball has a major image and brand problem. It is the “boomer” of the four professional sports leagues in the U.S., refusing to fully adapt to new technologies and to embrace trends that would help catapult baseball into the future.

While the NBA thrives on its “celebrity” player personalities, the NFL champions its fast-paced season, and the NHL leans into its fanatical fan bases and burgeoning mascot personalities, MLB has done little to persuade a generation of shortening attention spans that the 162-game season, full of three-hour plus games, is worth their time.

This alone was a big enough issue for MLB. From failing to leverage major stars like Mike Trout to archaic time rules, I am certainly not the first person to accuse the league of being asleep at the wheel in its public relations and branding efforts. But a bombshell report this week shows the MLB may have been sleepwalking in more ways than one.

Murmurs of cheating began in November, a month after the Astros lost in the 2019 World Series to the Washington Nationals, when former Houston Astros pitcher Mike Fiers alleged an electronic sign stealing plot during the 2017 season.

The very public accusation made by a former team member gave MLB no choice but to investigate the incident – and the final report and punishment released this week were quite the bombshell. A final investigation implicated the Astros general manager, manager, a bench coach who had moved on to manage the Boston Red Sox (and lead them to a World Series in 2018), as well as several players, one of whom had been named the manager of the New York Mets just this offseason.

MLB handed out immediate one-year suspensions to the Astros GM and manager, who were subsequently fired by the team, but immediate speculation of how other teams “harboring” alleged cheaters would handle the fall-out began. A cheating scandal that vilified one team’s actions was starting to bubble over into a league-wide issue. Both the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets released their managers ahead of any official sanctions and the baseball world was BUZZING.

Now, baseball is no stranger to controversy. With a 151-year history, there have been a number of shocking moments – rigged World Series, lifetime bans for betting scandals, a women’s contingent during the war, racial divides, steroids, and even some sign stealing. But, as details begin to explode, it seems now more than ever that MLB was oblivious to the amount of crisis communications and public relations needed to hush the outraged voices of a technology-fueled cheating scandal.

What started as a claim made by a former player has now blown up to so much more. For times sake, if you’re interested in the details of every claim that’s being made, you can read more about it here. But, for the sake of this blog, the most detrimental claim being made against MLB comes from a Reddit feed this week. The son of a coach for a rival team suggested that not only did multiple teams within the league know of the Astros transgressions back in 2017, the LEAGUE itself also knew.

Now, these claims haven’t been confirmed, but they’ve certainly picked up steam, and if they are verified, it all but solidifies the PR problem in Major League Baseball.

It is incomprehensible to think that two years ago, it is possible that their leadership team did not step in and a release a transparent statement to the public about the cheating. But, they would not be the first organization that “sat on” information they know could be potentially damaging to their brand. Even still, the fallout from this investigation and the media circus that followed shows that MLB had no crisis communications plan in place. No clear-cut messaging to quell rumors and speculation. No media training in place or well-versed spokesperson to assuage demanding fans, teams and analysts. No, the MLB allowed public relations to take a back seat for too long.

Five years ago, one could argue that their lack of a visionary communications plan was an issue, but not devastating. But, the lack of accountability and preparedness in a scandal of this nature, poised to send shockwaves through the league for years to come, shows a blatant disrespect for the fans they have, any future fans they hoped to gain, and the rich history of the game itself.

Crisis communications is hard. It forces people to face difficult and uncomfortable situations, and more often than not, it requires people to take responsibility for their actions or mistakes. Skilled public relations practitioners will guide their clients through the gravity of the situations they are facing, while helping to craft meaningful messaging and responses to inform the public. If MLB knew about this scandal for two years and still chose to do nothing, at the very least their leadership team had ample time to get a robust plan in place. Instead, we faced a doomsday-esque media frenzy yesterday.

There is a PR problem in baseball, but sometimes you need to go through a major slump to get yourself back in the game.