The First Pick of the 2009 MLB Draft? Social Media

Posted on June 8th, 2009. Written by Emmett Jones.

This is still not your father’s Major League Baseball.

If there has been a more impressive media arm than Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media (MLBAM, or “BAM” for short) in the last few years, you would be hard pressed to find it.  Whenever BAM isn’t working on targeted online advertising, or just streaming major league baseball games in general, they’re revolutionizing their amateur draft.

MLB.com has launched the first online “social community” integration of the Draft by integrating Twitter into its expanding live interactive media experience, the Draft Caster, and its searchable Draft database, the Draft Tracker.

MLB.com will offer live coverage and analysis of the entire First-Year Player Draft, beginning Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET. The MLB Network will broadcast the first round on Tuesday evening from its Studio 42 in Secaucus, N.J., and those 32 selections also will be simulcast live on MLB.com.

As the Draft gets under way on Tuesday — and even before then, in fact — fans will not only be able to follow along every minute of the way online, but they’ll be able to interact directly with Draft-eligible players and MLB.com Draft experts, among others…

Even more revolutionary, though, will be the online Twitter presence of some of the top prospects in the Draft, who will keep fans updated on their own personal experiences.

Is this not the perfect synergy between athlete and fan that everyone has been clamoring for and what I guessed would be the future of sports business communication?  Kudos to MLB for recognizing a need and for utilizing twitter to fill that need.

And of course, for those fans looking to share their MLB draft wisdom with the rest of the world? BAM has you covered.

And if you want to make sure your own “tweets” are displayed on the MLB.com Draft Caster and Tracker over the course of the three-day Draft, all you have to do is include the reference code “#mlbdraft” within your message.

When it comes to anything involving technology, MLB just gets it.  I certainly can’t say this about every aspect of baseball, but when it comes to technology? Baseball is king.

The NBA draft will be held on June 25, 2009…and yes, I hope someone from the NBA is watching.  Watching Blake Griffin tweet about his newly, deep rooted depression over being drafted by the Clippers would be a unique experience.

MLB.com — Fans can truly feel draft on Twitter

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