Long before Gordon Lessersohn and I were working in and around baseball, we were simply two kids who found something special in the game.
That was the idea behind opening my recent conversation with Lessersohn, Major League Baseball’s Senior Director of Youth Content Strategy and Initiatives. Today, his job is centered on helping create the next generation of those kids.
Lessersohn has been integral to the launch of MLB Clubhouse, MLB’s dedicated YouTube channel for kids featuring original, age-appropriate baseball content, and the league’s broader effort to introduce younger audiences to baseball and softball.
But as our conversation made clear, growing the game is about much more than convincing kids to sit down and watch nine innings.
Building More Ways Into Baseball
When I asked Lessersohn what made him fall in love with baseball, he did not point to one moment.
He grew up in a baseball family, but the sport was also everywhere around him. There was This Week in Baseball, video games, baseball cards, Starting Lineup figures, 90’s baseball movies and, of course, actually playing.
“It was so important that there were so many different touchpoints,” he said.
By the time he went to the ballpark, the relationship had already been built.
“I already liked baseball,” Lessersohn explained. “I knew what to expect because of all the content and toys and baseball cards and video games and playing the game.”
The ballpark was simply “the cherry on top.”
“That was my experience and the experience I’m trying to recreate now in this role,” he said.
That philosophy sits at the heart of MLB’s youth content strategy.
Lessersohn said a recent data point showed that 80 percent of MLB’s most avid fans became baseball fans before age 12, making those early years especially important.
After years of marketing conversations about how to reach millennials and then Gen Z, Lessersohn began thinking differently.
“Why don’t we also get ahead of it and really start creating content for kids when they’re most impressionable?” he recalled.
Meeting Kids Where They Already Are
The idea became particularly real for Lessersohn as a parent.
With a young son at home, he began searching YouTube for “baseball for kids” and “baseball for toddlers,” hoping to teach him what baseball looked like, what a home run was and who players like Shohei Ohtani were.
He found plenty of unofficial baseball videos with millions of views, but he also saw an opening.
“There was an opportunity for the league to own this space,” Lessersohn said.
YouTube became the natural home for MLB Clubhouse because the league wanted as few barriers to entry as possible and an “always-on” way to reach Gen Alpha where they already spend time.
That accessibility is important.
“Content is always on,” Lessersohn said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s raining. It doesn’t matter your financial situation.”
Not every child can immediately attend a game or join a baseball team. Content can serve as another doorway.
Baseball as a Shared Experience
I also asked Lessersohn about something baseball has always done particularly well: connect generations.
Growing up, some of my clearest family memories came from sitting together for Sunday Night Baseball or watching Yankees postseason runs. Families today have even more competing for their attention, but Lessersohn believes baseball content can still create those shared moments.
“Our angle [is] to make sure we’re creating content that a parent, an older sibling, would want to sit with their eight-year-old son or daughter and enjoy,” he said.
“The best content that my son watches is one that I can sit with him, laugh with him and really connect with him on.”
That thinking can be seen in The Doug Out!, MLB Clubhouse’s original handmade stop-motion series.
The show follows Doug and Scout, two friends who help introduce kids to players, teams, baseball history and terminology. Doug approaches the sport more casually, while Scout is the stats-and-history-loving “baseball nerd.”
Lessersohn said MLB initially aimed the series at roughly five- to eight-year-olds and wanted it to be something children and parents could enjoy together.
As the show has developed, however, Lessersohn has become increasingly interested in what the characters can teach beyond baseball.
Looking ahead, he described the next step as potentially “teaching kids about life through baseball,” rather than simply teaching them about baseball.
What Success Looks Like
Near the end of our conversation, I asked Lessersohn to imagine we were speaking again 10 years from now. What would have to happen for him to believe MLB had succeeded in reaching this generation?
His answer was not about YouTube views or subscriber totals.
He described a pathway.
A child finds MLB Clubhouse and gets curious about baseball. Maybe that leads them to a Play Ball clinic. Then they attend a game. Eventually they watch a game.
“And then they’re fans,” he said.
That is ultimately the bigger goal.
“Our job as youth content strategy is to get baseball and softball in front of kids however and wherever,” Lessersohn said. “It’s about going into as many places and getting baseball talked about.”
Maybe a child first discovers baseball through a mascot. Maybe it is an art lesson, an animated character, a video game or a player they recognize from another show.
For previous generations, it may have been baseball cards, movies or a Sunday night broadcast.
The platforms have changed, but the idea has not.
Growing the game starts by giving kids enough opportunities to find something they love about baseball. And if those touchpoints begin to add up, the ballpark might one day become the cherry on top for them, too.
