Close Friends

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

                                                                -- Chinese warrior-sage, Sun-Tzu

Regardless of what one thinks about Chinese politics, the games there this week were extraordinary. Nothing surprising about why MLB made the trip - that's clear as a bell - but to see the New York game contested by major leaguers, a mere long toss or gunshot from The Gate of Heavenly Peace, is surreal if not downright transcendent. MLB is on it like white on rice, with a phalanx of house "reporters" documenting how delighted everyone is about everything. Gee, how geographically appropriate!

And then there's MLBlahgs, characteristically propping up a pair of moribund player travelogues, to the exclusion of everyone else in the "community". You have to laugh. Not at the inequity of promotion - as I say, China is a huge story and attention must be paid. You just have to laugh at consumer's utter lack of response to the content.

Let's set the stage. There are tens of millions of baseball fans domestically, hundreds of millions worldwide. At this juncture, millions more Americans have visited mainland China and have a special interest in the people and culture.

If a couple major leaguers, including a prominent star like Andruw Jones, shared personal experiences from baseball's inaugural voyage to this fascinating destination, wouldn't you think there'd be significant, if not overwhelming interest inherent in that? Not necessarily deep interest, but widespread, shallow, fanboy or Travel Channel type interest? What was the food like, Andruw? Do they like baseball in China? I've been to Beijing, Heath - what did you do there? Tell us a funny story about your adventures, something we wouldn't read in your mlb bio. Do you have any pictures?

And yet, after all the hoopla and setup ( including direct links from mlb's home page all weekend), as of my posting, the last three entries from Heath Bell and Andruw Jones have elicited a combined total of two reader comments.

Two.

In the whole world!

How could such a buzzworthy event, fueled by mlb's mega-marketing utterly fail to capture any public interest? Surely one thing cannot explain such incredulous results. Here's a few ideas:

1. Sports fans are more into their NCAA brackets. Well, I guess, but if Hockey Ladies of Greatness can draw 10 comments per post here at home, why cant the Padres and Dodgers draw a third that, halfway around the world?

2. Player blogs arent new anymore. By now, fans are familiar with MLBlogs' brand of "player" blogs and have largely tuned them out. Initial posts still generate interest, but most fans quickly realize the dual lure of substantive input from - or genuine interaction with - a major leaguer are false promises.

3. MLB's player/celebrity blogs are boring and fake. Celebrity bloggers' inability or disinterest in conversing with individual commenters is so total on MLBlogs, it makes one wonder if the celebs even have a password to access their own accounts. Contrast that with ordinary bloggers, who are engaged in continuous dialogue with their hard earned readerships. Or with Curt Schilling, who responds to comments and fine tunes positions based on fan input on his enormously popular blog. Whatever one thinks of Curt, the point is there's a real person on the other side. A person who wants to be there. MLB player blogs rarely have much to say - and to assert that their posts are "edited" may be too kind. Maybe there's player input, but it's hidden behind a veneer of editors who appear primarily responsible for the content, generating toothless, circa 1958 copy and even erasing irreverent but innocuous reader comments. Who wants to read a blog like that?  Who, in 2008, would even want to be associated with a blog like that?  Read Andruw Jones' blog and ask yourself, "Does he really want to be blogging?"

4. MLBlogs is driven purely by advertising, not independent content. That's why the best writers have already left.  This isnt a community of ideas. It's a top down public relations arm of MLB, pure and simple. Well, simple, anyway. There's nothing pure about charging people to join what's sold as a marketplace of ideas, then turning that promise into what amounts to a monopoly of tired advertisements. That's why MLBlogs, despite enormous potential, is so disrespected on both sides of it's fortressed walls. Much like it's close friend, China, MLB sees independent thought inside its borders as a threat instead of an opportunity.

Both might do well, in this rapidly evolving age, to heed Sun-Tzu's advice.