Chris Rose says MLB should take Tom Arnold’s advice and care less about criticism

Chris Rose thinks the future of sports (baseball) media is a bit all over the place, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing.

During a recent interview with Jessica Kleinschmidt of Awful Announcing’s Short and to the Point podcast, Rose acknowledged the shift towards shorter content formats. While he believes there’s still value in long-form interviews, he understands why people might not want to invest 40 minutes listening to one.

In the interview, Rose expressed hope for a future where listeners can easily access specific segments of an interview they’re interested in rather than having to listen to the entire thing. He also recognized the appeal of short-form content, highlighting examples like kids interviewing major league players on the field, which can be entertaining in bite-sized chunks.

“I do think that the sport has to get their streaming service figured out,” Rose said. “I hate reading that people are blacked out, that they can’t watch teams in Vegas because they’re too close to LA and Phoenix and San Francisco and San Diego, so they can’t watch any baseball. They have to figure all of that out.

“And I do think that baseball has to continue to wrap its arms around these content creators. Like, that’s how you’re going to grow your audience. You have to be willing to.

“And it’s not always about controlling the message. Sometimes, you have to be willing to take a hit, too, from people who are being critical, but they are talking about your sport.”

Rose looked back at a lesson he once received from Best Damn Sports Show Period panelist Tom Arnold.

“Tom Arnold taught me a long time ago,” he said. “At that point, people hadn’t really mentioned my name with anything. When I started doing Best Damn (Sports Show), I got a couple of one-off shows from Fox called Celebrity Boxing…It was horrible…It was ridiculous.

“And I remember that somebody wrote something critical, ‘Chris Rose, who wants to be considered a legitimate journalist, hosts Celebrity Boxing. But then again, that’s kind of the direction his career is going since he hosted the Best Damn Sports Show Period.’ And I remember…it kind of hurt me. I was probably 30 or 31 years old, and a national publication was taking a shot at me.”

Feeling lost under the weight of criticism, Rose looked to Arnold for guidance. Arnold was pretty blunt in telling him that as long as they spelled his name right, there was no such thing as bad publicity.

“I think that Major League Baseball could take advice from Tom Arnold, of all people,” explained Rose. “And say, hey, as long as they’re talking about your sport — mostly in good light, I’m talking about anything where it’s not super serious. But even if you don’t agree with the thought process let people talk about it; it’s okay.”

Short and to the Point with Jessica Kleinschmidt is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.