Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

JordanSG — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:00:35 -0000

The MLB are making a huge mistake. Not only is it a heart warming video that everyone will enjoy, but it's a great way for them to further promote their brand as a family experience.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

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Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

levin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:18:29 -0000

I also dont get how MLB can do this..... I mean arent alot of these videos that are on here taped at some event.. LIKE A BALL GAME OR CONCERT ETC ETC....I was wondering what if this fan or someone around him had their own camera going and got it and put it on here like I know that there are tons of people that have done this.... Just doesnt make alot of sense! GO PHILLY TEAMS!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

best satellite receiver — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:35:04 -0000

Nice cute little girl.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

Ty — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:48:46 -0000

When they went on strike for more $$$ they lost me forever! This is America. . .apple pie, ice cream, and BASEBALL. Well this USED to be America and baseball is crap! I hope the sport flops and major leagues become like the minors and they like college/high school.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

Chris — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:55:52 -0000

This is nothing new. MLB has NEVER understood fan/user-generated content. About 2-3 years ago, they sent out cease and desist letters to all of the higher profile fan operated websites focused on hometown teams. MLB advertising and brand executives are clueless to say the least - always have been and, apparently, always will be.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

Cubbiefann — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:52:25 -0000

Way to go MLB...Way to endear yourself to the fans...$100 tickets...$7 beers...$5 hot dogs...Cheap Cheap Cheapskates....Amazing that you could be so petty...Unbelievable

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

badgerfan1 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:42:20 -0000

MLB is just another CORPORATE GIANT that just doesn't get it. WAKE UP! I hope the football folks throw you back a ball that you can not catch when your ratings plummet as the football season heats up.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

kevinarth — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:28:33 -0000

Brand awareness and goodwill go a long way.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

kevinarth — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:26:20 -0000

I wonder if that father has any rights over that video since it's him and his daughter who are really being exploited here. If nothing else, they deserve a cut of the profit generated from it, but I'd think they'd have the right to distribute the video as they see fit, even if that means pushing it to Youtube.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

kevinarth — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:20:40 -0000

We, in the US, tend to forget the difficulty that non-US viewers have in viewing some content when it's restricted in this way, so thank you for bringing this up. It's one more reason I think MLB is being stupid.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

kevinarth — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:18:41 -0000

Keep in mind, we're talking about a little girl and her father catching a ball. This isn't a game-winning grand-slam (I'm not a baseball fan. sorry if that sounds wrong). They're exploiting this truly random opportunity for a few advertising dollars.

I won't go to the MLB site for this. I'm not a fan of the sport, but I am a sucker for a cute vid. However, I won't be a part of an organization like this abusing whatever goodwill they once had to make a few extra bucks. Maybe I'm alone in this and they'll never notice, or maybe there are 20,000 others who agree and they'll see that they're being stupid. It's got to start somewhere.

Throughout history (yes, even before the Internet), companies have given away a little in order to raise brand awareness and to generally be "good people." These people are following in the footsteps of the recording industry. The RIAA and MPAA are slowly learning the lesson. I wonder when MLB will get it.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

Brian Mays — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:15:26 -0000

The comments here are reminding me why I think a good bit of social media evangelists sound like they just want a free ride. Much "social media" news these days centers on who isn't letting us have something for free.

In a time when many new media companies are struggling with how to make a profit it's been reported that MLB.com has been profitable for awhile now. Maybe instead of deriding MLB.com we should look to their examples.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

Ryan — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:08:25 -0000

you people are all crazy, circle-jerking each other into a frenzy, over what? is this all a joke or are you guys all serious? this is the funniest string of comments I've seen in a long time, you people act as if someone has done something morally wrong. this is bizarre.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

milkfish — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:45:21 -0000

Oh they're allowed all right, this they proved already. They just cannot expect the rest of us to be in love with the nasty way they did it.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

Brad F. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:23:33 -0000

Seems retarded to me. This could have been fantastic free advertising. Instead, they decided to restrict viewing to their site. For what? Ad revenue? Hope it makes up for lost ticket sales, and I for one won't be visiting their site to watch it. I wonder when major companies will stop being intellectual property whores and get with the times?

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

patrickeb — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:14:45 -0000

I guess this is the very issue that so many people misunderstand.

There is a new social activity in the world - sharing. It the company nothing to allow people to share it. They can still use it however they like and allow people to immediately join in.

I've stopped watching football (soccer to those in the US) since the great majority of games are only on some form of pay TV. I watched it as a kid and played. I would arrange everything around the games on the TV.

The only reason it's on pay TV is so the clubs etc can earn even more money to pay even more money to themselves and players etc. I don't begrudge people earning a living, but restricting access has certainly driven away people and reduced support for teams - and no, I'm not the only one who thinks this.

Many commentators in Britain and Europe also believe that crowd support for local teams has been adversely affected without any benefit to the viewing audience.

This is just another example of greed and grasping self-interest.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

patrickeb — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:09:46 -0000

Thanks for that.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

patrickeb — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:04:41 -0000

Except you CAN'T see it so easily!

I'm in Australia and their site is CRAP, with a capital C, that rhymes with P which stands for stupid idiots who are merely trying to generate a little extra profit while annoying the PUBLIC.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

justin999 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:11:41 -0000

Haha… cute. And you know what. It didn't hurt me to go to the MLB site. Thanks to the internet everyone thinks everything is FREE or FREE TO USE. What's wrong with protecting your creation and profiting off of it? You can still link to their site. What's the harm?

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

Name — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:43:26 -0000

If the MLB chooses to control where its content is viewable, it can control the advertising that is placed against it, and thus the revenue generated by that particular clip. Allowing a clip to be embedded anywhere reduces its value because anyone, anywhere might be selling an ad against it (that's simply supply and demand).

It may or may not be "free marketing", which may or may not give opportunities for profits elsewhere, but the rightsholder certainly won't have any control over how viewers use that clip afterwards. It should be the rightsholder's decision whether to explore that opportunity or not.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

Zak — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:57:34 -0000

I'm gonna go out on a limb here.... and disagree with all the MLB haters. (quickly dodges flying shoe!) Seriously though. Step back and think outside of your open source mindset just for one second and think of the potential ramifications (e.g. lawsuits) if some jackass gets ahold of the video and pulls a crude commentary out of their ass about the little girl then plasters it all over the web? I have kids of my own - I'd go ballistic if a bunch of people were dissing my little girl online because she responded just like a little kid would naturally do. I'm not even a fan of MLB - but honestly I see why they pulled it so fast. It's a simple "just in case" scenario. There are some serious assholes out there who would love a chance to prey on this little girls action. I guarantee it would be distasteful and most likely embarrassing to the family. There's not a single person on here who can honestly say I don't know what I'm talking about and that something like that would never happen. OK, enough said.

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

Ryan — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:28:52 -0000

Who cares? It's their broadcast, they don't feel like sharing, their loss, where's the story here? Are you crying about this because they're not allowing you to share it on some site of yours and get ad revenue from it or something? Why are we talking about this?

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

LAINEYBIRDY — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:46:05 -0000

How stupid is that! They SUCK! #FAIL

Re: Little Girl Throws Baseball Back, MLB Throws Embeds Away

Mike Campbell — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:45:18 -0000

MLB is right on this one. It's their cameras, equipment, and employees that captured the moment. They should be allowed to use it to drive traffic to their web site instead of to others. And I don't mind the short commercial before the vid either.

This is altogether different from restricting content created by fans such as capturing the moment on their video camera or tweeting about it. That content they should not restricted.