Houston Astros All-Star infielder Alex Bregman is trying to level the playing field. Not just between the white lines, where the World Series hero is one of today’s elite all-around players, already a perennial MVP candidate at 25 years young.
His goal is simple, if not fearlessly far reaching: “I want to be the LeBron James of baseball,” Bregman told Bleacher Report in February.
This is multi-tiered. Without question, Bregman’sobjective is to win more championships, make more All-Star teams, claim an American League MVP award, and maybe give a speech one afternoon in Cooperstown. But the proud product of Albuquerque, New Mexico - perhaps its second most popular former resident after Walter White - also wants to promote the game he so adores, and perhaps himself in the process.
Major League Baseball is thriving financially, with every team turning significant profits and its players earning record salaries. Bregman himself signed a six-year, $100
million extension this spring. However, in terms of social media and crossover celebrity, “America’s Pastime” is just that. Old school. In 2016, according to Sports Business Journal, the average fan was 57 years old, whereas the average NBA fan was 42, with the NFL in the middle.
So while Bregman is by leaps and bounds the social-media leader of baseball, with nearly a million combined followers on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, his social engagements this past offseason (around 4.3 million) would have ranked 18th in the NFL and 25th in the NBA over the same period.
Denne historien er fra September 2019-utgaven av Sports Card Monthly.
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Denne historien er fra September 2019-utgaven av Sports Card Monthly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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