In 2018, around the end of a decade during which Mike Trout was the best player in baseball, Major League Baseball counted with its inability to transform it into a national icon. Commissioner Rob Manfred suggested in an inevitably but frankly suggested why the League had struggled to market the trout.
“Players’ marketing requires something for sure: the player”, ” Manfred said then.
The angels have taken over At Manfred, with a declaration – partially manufactured by the owner Arte Moreno – who vigorously defended the trout: “We applaud him to have prioritized his personal values on commercial self -promotion.”
Neither the trout nor any other player owes his team or the league something other than their best effort on the field. However, the best fans get to know their favorite players as personalities, the more the league is expanding its appeal beyond pure and hard.
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It’s nothing new. Half a century ago, ABC used its “close and personal” segments to have the Americans invest in anonymous Olympic athletes.
In this sense, Apple’s documentary on the World Series 2024 is a success. The three -part series entitled “Fight for Glory” will be presented Thursday on Apple TV +.
There are no major revelations here. This is the celebration of a world series of marquee – Dodgers! New York Yankees! MLB has the copyright of the documentary and Manfred is listed in the credits.
Also listed in credits: Chelsea Freeman, wife of Freddie; And Brianna Betts, wife of Mookie. The cameras teams followed the families of the stars of the Dodgers: on the journey to the matches, in the stands during the matches, around the team after the games and even at home.
Apple has put cameras wherever it could and put microphones on as many people as possible, including managers and coaches, referees, broadcasters and journalists. Jack Harris, who covers the dodgers for the Times, welcomed a camera operator in his car and did an interview while going to the Dodger stadium.
The Dodgers stop, Mookie Betts, on the left, and the first goal player Freddie Freeman shared a laugh in a match against the Cleveland Guardians in August 2023. (Nick Cammett / Associated Press)
Freeman is like Open with the media As a league player, and Betts has already made his mark in the media world. Her Budding media empire Includes a Podcast and a YouTube channel. He used the first as a forum for teammates to review the experience of the World Series And how the Yankees collapsed in the series, and he used the latter to invite fans to see The celebration of the World Series Dodgers championship through his eyes.
In this genre of the documentary “All access”, Freeman and Betts are more or less good as possible to attract occasional fans – those who are not interested in exit speeds or launch angles, but have invested in stories of human interest.
Betts’ mother tells how her son tried her first baseball team for young people, with her teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles Gluve, and went to tears after the coach said he was not good enough to make the team.
Freeman’s son Max woke up with a box one day in July and, at the end of the day, was in a hospital and in a fan. It had been diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome.
“I lost my mother because of cancer at the age of 10, which is horrible,” said Freeman. “But when you see your son fighting for his own life at 3 years old?” You don’t think it will happen. “
Freeman left the Dodgers. It was only after Max was released – after eight days in the hospital and on the road to recovery – Freeman returned to the team.
“I would not have returned this year if he had been sick,” said Freeman.
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On the way to the Dodger stadium for the World Series match 1, a few hours after her husband has already got there, Chelsea Freeman said: “It’s pretty crazy to see how we were a few months ago. And then now going to the World Series is quite surreal.”
And SO Her husband hit the circuits in each of the first four games, en route to win the honors of the most precious players.
Before the first match, Chelsea Freeman said that his precious necklace – the one with a wick of hair from her deceased mother inside a cross – broke. He has always played with this necklace.
“We had to night at the jeweler,” said Chelsea Freeman.
THE Home run instantly legendary Freeman struck to win match 1 – the First Walkoff Grand Chelem in the history of World Seriesthe one who prompted the “Gibby, meeting Freddie!” Joe Davis call – is presented to viewers in SLO-MO, followed by various angles, and accompanied predictablely with the music of “The Natural”.
The fly ball fell by Aaron judge – the most memorable moment of the Yankees’ Fifth round error festival Body game – is presented here with quick cuts. In five seconds, from five points of view, the judge drops the ball five times.
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If you are a fan of the Yankees, you probably have no interest in revisiting this moment or the series as a whole. If you are a fan of dodgers, you probably do it.
The three -part documentary lasts three hours combined, which requires many viewers. The series lasted only five games.
If you are a fan of dodgers, at least you get the end of the championship. If you are a fan of the Yankees, well, you can see one of your own Dodgers warning fans not to approach him at the Yankee Stadium.
“Anyone who wears dodgers,” he said, “gets a wedgie.”
Register for more new dodgers with Dodgers Runnout. Delivered at the start of each series.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
