MLB nonexistant clips on youtube. What gives, ya'll?

[Moose Milligan]

I'm on another board arguing about the athletic merits of baseball players and I wanted to dig and find some video clips of certain plays/players...and to my dismay, there aren't many (if any).

I had to dig hard to find a montage of Ozzie Smith. Rey Ordonez plays? Fugghetaboutit. Bo Jackson's 300+ foot strike to nail Reynolds? Can't be found.

Plenty of football and basketball highlights though.

I mean, I suppose I understand why MLB yanks baseball clips down, but IMO, it's kind of stupid not to have as many clips out there as they can. Why can't someone who wasn't around for Ozzie's prime appreciate his defensive wizardry easily? Why can't I watch Bo's throw whenever I want?

It's publicity for your sport. It's not a bad thing.

[Old_Bay_Oriole]

Found the Bo clip. Wish I had been able to see him play:

http://forums.eog.com/online-sportsbooks-and-gambling-discussion/bo-jackson-throw-left-field-203897.html

3rd post

but I wish MLB would make a "classics" archive on its site.

[square634]

Interestingly, I took a Wharton business of sports class with a professor who knows the guy at MLB who is in charge of all of this (who is a Wharton grad himself, IIRC). Anyway, apparently the MLB guy has a very strict philosophy about protecting rights and not allowing anything free to be disseminated on the internet. In the same vein, I believe MLB sued Slingbox (my professor said the higher-ups at MLB and Slingbox genuinely loathe each other), whereas the other leagues weren't as upset.

My professor said he thought it was foolish for MLB not to embrace technology, whereas he especially commended NHL and nhl.com for doing a much better job. His theory was that if you are stubborn like MLB is being, people are still going to find ways to get it out there illegally, and embracing technology allows for essentially free viral marketing which disseminates interest in your product.

[Moose Milligan]

Interestingly, I took a Wharton business of sports class with a professor who knows the guy at MLB who is in charge of all of this (who is a Wharton grad himself, IIRC). Anyway, apparently the MLB guy has a very strict philosophy about protecting rights and not allowing anything free to be disseminated on the internet. In the same vein, I believe MLB sued Slingbox (my professor said the higher-ups at MLB and Slingbox genuinely loathe each other), whereas the other leagues weren't as upset.

My professor said he thought it was foolish for MLB not to embrace technology, whereas he especially commended NHL and nhl.com for doing a much better job. His theory was that if you are stubborn like MLB is being, people are still going to find ways to get it out there illegally, and embracing technology allows for essentially free viral marketing which disseminates interest in your product.

Bingo. Exactly what I was looking for.

[TyCobb]

NHL has been amazing with it. They even have an account they control, but what is great is they let other people post videos no problem. The best is any fight you want to see is up at youtube.

[isestrex]

Yep, there are countless times when I've tried to pull up someone's "So-and-so's greatest WebGems mix" video only to find that there really aren't any... like at all. There are plenty of them out there for basketball rookies and football scrubs but we can't even view a simple highlight reel of Cal's greatest plays on the internet. Disgraceful, MLB is trying to make our National Pastime a thing of the past.