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So, what did you do today?

If you're like most avid sports fans with an Internet connection and too much time on your hands, you followed Major League Baseball's live draft -- on MLB.com.

The MLB, one of the most consistently high-grossing professional sports leagues in the world, has a draft that's about as entertaining as sitting through a three-hour organic chemistry lab. Old-timers may be able to make the case for radio as a viable sports medium, but no self respecting member of the SportsCenter generation will ever claim that watching a draft online compares with how the NFL and NBA drafts are televised.

For a league trying to regain popular support and increase its fan base, Major League Baseball is making a grave mistake by not pushing to get quality TV time for its draft. The NBA and NFL drafts are entertaining far into the late rounds because of the format they are presented in -- a panel of overly-knowledgeable columnists and analysts and absurdly outspoken former and contemporary players.

Who wouldn't turn into see Don Zimmer, John Rocker, Roger Clemens, and Yogi Berra fighting over picks? That's a train wreck waiting to happen -- and if we've learned anything in the post-O.J., reality-TV era, it's that America loves an overly-televised semi-natural disaster.

There is a demand for a televised event -- many baseball websites are expecting at least double the regular traffic on draft day. Baseball is a sport loved by a generation that grew up imitating Babe Ruth in sandlots; to attract a younger, more technologically-savvy generation, the MLB needs to appeal to the sport's sexy side. Play up the numbers, add some humor. Baseball may not have slam dunks and Hail Mary passes, but a triple-play on a summer night is damn fine.

One of the biggest problems surrounding the draft is that the average baseball fan doesn't have an attachment to the league's incoming class -- and many of these players will be playing at the Triple-A or Double-A level for their first few seasons. In previous years, football and basketball had a leg up on baseball -- each show cased many first-round picks during bowl games and March Madness. However, the NBA has recently elected to take prep stars in the first=round and has had no trouble acclimating the country to these young phenoms.

Before there was LeBron James, there was Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant -- household names before they were leading the league in scoring. So Delmon Young and Rickie Weeks -- the projected top-two picks in the 2003 MLB draft -- haven't signed $90 million endorsement deals. Neither had Nolan Ryan or Derek Jeter. Half the fun of the draft is predicting how well -- or, for those sadistic fans (or Yankee haters) -- how badly these young ball players will do.

For networks, the difficulty in deciding to broadcast the MLB draft should fall somewhere between renewing "Friends" and canceling any show starring Jason Alexander or a former reality-TV star. The fan base is established, and the draft would prime any would-be fans for an season. A draft would connect fans to the youngest group in the league and it would rope them in to players that will undoubtedly shake up the standings in a few years.

For baseball, the televised draft is a must -- it will renew the faith of fans hardened by rising salaries and the threat of strikes, and it will grab basketball and hockey-deprived sports fans.

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