On Saturday, the 2024 Futures Sport came about at Globe Life Discipline in Arlington, the positioning of this 12 months’s All-Star Sport. Nonetheless, most baseball followers may need missed it, and the blame falls squarely on MLB.
For starters, the sport began within the afternoon, 4:00 p.m. on the East Coast, smack dab in the midst of a full slate of MLB motion. That is proper, whereas future main league standouts competed on the identical subject, practically all 30 groups from the American and Nationwide Leagues had been additionally in motion.
Basically, MLB made most followers select between the Futures Sport or watching their groups play a doubtlessly essential mid-July contest.
Even the 2024 All-Star Superstar Softball Sport acquired higher therapy, beginning at a way more viewer-friendly time of seven:45 p.m. CT. In the meantime, the occasion solely needed to cope with two West Coast MLB video games.
Somewhat than that includes at this time’s finest prospects within the primetime slot, the powers that be determined that followers would reasonably watch the blokes from “Dude Excellent” attempt to hit a softball thrown slowly to them underhanded.
Moreover, a abilities competitors was held instantly following the Futures Sport. However, with no choice to observe it dwell, these curious about seeing what occurred should wait till Sunday when MLB broadcasts a tape-delayed model at 10 a.m. ET.
The true disgrace is that lots of the recreation’s finest prospects did not get the highlight they in all probability deserved. On Saturday, 26 of the high 100 prospects performed within the recreation, together with seven ranked among the many high 20.
If MLB genuinely needed to develop the sport, it ought to have given tomorrow’s stars the correct stage to showcase their abilities. As an alternative, they had been the warm-up act for popular culture influencers, artists and entertainers.