Who is the Kobe & Lebron of MLB ?

One thing that Baseball has been slow to promote is the many young stars that are playing today. MLB does a terrible job in this. Who is the Kobe Bryant or Lebron James of Baseball ?

We have so many stars that can fill the void. Ichiro, Pujols, Lincecum, (please not Derek Jeter!) and many other players that would do good in becoming the face of this league.

The players union have taken notice and they are trying to do something about it. From the NY Times:

The Major League Baseball Players Association on Friday will open its first retail outlet devoted to selling player-only merchandise.

The store, which will be inside Citi Field and be operated by Aramark, is an attempt to boost licensing revenue for the union and to promote star players, much as the N.B.A. and other leagues have done.

The outlet will be called The Players Clubhouse: A Players Choice Store and is being billed by the union as a prototype for future retail stores. The union has not said where its next stores may be, but one of its goals is to put outlets in other stadiums.

The Players Clubhouse inside Citi Field will carry goods made by VF/Majestic, Nike, Twins, Topps, Upper Deck, WinCraft, Forever Collectibles, PhotoFile and Rawlings. Everything in the store, from bobbleheads to coffee mugs to team jerseys, will have a player’s name or likeness on it, thereby producing licensing revenue for the union. The union will test new products in the store, including the possibility of products designed by Mets players.

Sports industry analysts say fans increasingly follow players more than their teams because they switch teams so frequently. The union is trying to make the most of that trend, it said.

“You don’t necessarily grow up a Mets fan, but a David Wright fan, and your affinity changes when he changes teams,” said Dan Migala, director of the Graduate School of Sports Business at Northwestern University. “People are there to support the Mets, but also David.”

Baseball has lagged other professional sports in the promotion of its biggest stars, other industry analysts said, something the union is eager to correct.

“We don’t have a Kobe or LeBron in baseball,” said Maury Brown, the president of the Business of Sports Network, a series of Web sites devoted to sports business research.

He added, “Nike was huge in pushing brand recognition of the N.B.A. forward. If Nike put even half the effort it does for LeBron James into Albert Pujols, they’d do well.”