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Baseball is the new Schlitz Beer
Too much change and labor strife killed “the beer that made Milwaukee famous.” Sound familiar?
Major League Baseball is the new Schlitz beer.
Once upon a time Schlitz was the most popular brand of beer in America. But its status as the industry leader began to erode when they changed their formula around 1970, and their base began to erode.
By 1981, a labor strike crippled the brand to the point it shut down its Milwaukee brewery and “The beer that made Milwaukee famous” was no longer brewed in Suds City. The brand was sold, de-emphasized by its one-time competitors who acquired it, and is now brewed, with its regained original recipe, as an antiquity.
Good luck trying to find Schlitz. It’s yesterday’s product.
And it’s hard to believe Major League Baseball isn’t going down the same path for the exact same reasons; doubling down on change that isn’t working and labor strife.
The announcement Major League Baseball will return on July 24 comes with some caveats.
A 60-game season, for instance, but we knew long ago a 162-season would not be practical in 2020.
