It’s baseball season! Which means many fans across the country and around the world are once again cheering on their favourite team, and possibly hoping for a repeat of last year’s Blue Jays experience.
Baseball is huge in our home. My husband has been a mega fan all of his life (Go Tigers!) and my kids have both played. We watch a lot of baseball, listen to games on the radio and wear the merch.
In the past 25 years of becoming more of a fan alongside the superfan I married, I noticed some changes and trends. Especially when it comes to how baseball, the MLB and teams are using social media and engaging with fans.
Like most brands and businesses, social media has played an important role in connecting fans to the game and bringing in younger fans.
Something is working. The 2025 World Series viewership increased, and Canadian viewership was huge; Game 7 was the most watched Rogers broadcast ever. And this is no surprise given it had been decades since the Blue Jays, Canada’s only MLB team currently, made the series.
If you post it, they will come.
Social media has become integrated with teams’ marketing plans. You can follow your team’s highlights during a game, moments after they happen, with clips being shared constantly. There are interviews with players, behind-the-scenes stories—if you follow the Blue Jays plenty of antics happening (they are a fun team!). I see a lot of game highlights and takes on Threads. It’s fun to join other fans in the excitement (and heartbreak) of the game.
This means the reach of the game extends beyond television and radio. This is a multimedia marketing system that will also reach younger audiences. The fan fervour is translated to the field too with an increase in kids joining baseball programs. This was by design. The MLB has put in efforts to encourage more youth to play in the last decade.
Engaging with fans in this way helps grow a fandom and it’s not just baseball where this is happening. Other sports and leagues are seeing it too.
Canada has long been known as a hockey country. But last year, during an epic Blue Jays season and post-season, this country showed their love of baseball. Your kids may be asking for Blue Jays gear, or to play catch and join a league. You may be following baseball accounts and listening to podcasts about the games.
Given how prevalent sports coverage, like the baseball fever we’re seeing, is in all kinds of media, it’s a great opportunity to talk to kids about things like how sports media has the potential to shape ideas about masculinity, how women are portrayed in sports or how companies can use sport to market to kids both online and offline.
Diversifying where you get your sports information helps too. I love following The Gist and getting their newsletter for equal coverage of men's and women's sports
However you are engaging with the sport, chances are there’s an online connection happening somewhere.
Play ball!
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