As I write this, I am sitting at my desk in Connecticut, and Major League Baseball’s Opening Day game is playing on Netflix on the TV in my office.
For the record, the New York Yankees beat up on the the San Francisco Giants, scoring a 7-0 win.
Oracle Park in San Francisco is my favorite of all the modern ballparks (I’ve been to every major league ballpark – I am qualified to make this judgement), so it was good to see it packed and resplendent on what looked like a beautiful Bay Area evening. Sorry to see the Giants lose, but it’s only one game.
For a moment, I’d like to talk about some elements of the business of baseball.
I must admit to being conflicted about the Netflix coverage. The video was fine, but the graphics were awful – too small and hard to read. And I didn’t love the announcers – they seemed overly impressed with their own cuteness, too focused on outside distractions, and they didn’t offer the kind of nimble and informed conversation that I’m used to with the exemplary New York Mets’ broadcast team of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling, nor the kind of deep knowledge and poetry of the legendary Vin Scully.
There also was way too much extraneous stuff that I found annoying – some WWE guy I’d never heard of screaming during the pregame show, and some comedian I’d never heard of named Bert Kreischer also screaming on the sidelines before the game. (Lots of screaming. Oy.)
I concede I’m an old guy, and I just want to watch the game and gain some reasonable insights from the announcers. I don’t need or want the other stuff.
But I also concede that for baseball to thrive, it may need more than just great games, outstanding athletic performances, and maybe one of the greatest World Series in history, which we had last year. Innovation is necessary. Maybe it’s okay that it has adopted the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System, which allows teams to challenge umpire calls. I was wrong when I opposed the pitch clock, though I still think that starting extra innings with a man on second base is a stupid rule.
That said, there was an interesting piece in The Athletic this week that painted a scenario that MLB should think about as being counter to the game’s best interests:
“Just a decade ago, if you were a Yankees fan in New York, you just needed a cable subscription to watch every regular-season game and the playoffs.
“Now, in 2026, it could require navigating 10 networks, five (or more) subscriptions and approaching a thousand dollars to see all the team’s games if it goes deep into October.
“It is a prime example of the angst of the modern sports fan.”
Basically, the Yankees will have 124 games on the team’s YES Network, 21 on Prime Video, three on NBC/Peacock, at least one on ESPN, one on ABC, six on Fox (plus playoffs), two on FSI (plus playoffs), four on TBS (plus playoffs) and at least one on Apple TV.
The Athletic notes that in addition to the costs involved of getting all those services, “viewers get a heap of frustration: Not knowing where to find their games daily; not enjoying their non-local broadcasters; and having to manage all those recurring bills, often with price increases seemingly out of nowhere. Older fans often struggle with the technology.”
But, it also points out: “Nearly everyone bears the added costs.”
But the question is whether, in the end, this all is good for baseball.
I’m not sure.
The Athletic had another piece that I thought effectively identified the problem:
“It’s the same mistake. These companies may have trillions of dollars and a lot of smart people, but they miss something about their services.
“On Major League Baseball’s Opening Night, Netflix thought we wanted to watch Netflix. Nope, we wanted to watch baseball: the Yankees vs. the Giants. It happened to be on Netflix. It’s that simple.
“It was the first game of the 2026 season and the inaugural exclusive MLB game on the service. For MLB and Netflix, it was a bit of celebration to have the league and such a powerful media player together.
“Good for them. But fans don’t care.
“Executives of all stripes will feed you some pablum about bringing in new audiences. But that is what a platform does, not the presentation. From a business perspective for MLB, it is a good thing for them to be on Netflix, because it has a huge subscription base of more than 300 million globally.
“However, what Netflix missed was it was just picking up the story of MLB. A new season starts another chapter, but it is an old book.”
The irony about all this is that most insiders seem convinced that there will be some sort of labor action after the 2026 season that will at least delay the 2027 season. The owners want a salary cap on player contracts – which I would find more understandable if these same owners were not raking it in by selling broadcast rights to all these different outlets. (I think if the players agree to a salary cap, the owners should agree to a floor.)
For the record, Netflix alone spent $150 million on a three-year deal that gives it rights to Opening Day, the Home Run Derby and the ‘Field of Dreams’ game.
Oh, well. The season has begun. The Mets play the Pirates at Citi Field at 1:15 pm EDT today. I’ll be in front of the TV. Hope springs eternal.
Which means that this edition of MNB has to end with this clip from “Field of Dreams,” three-and-a-half minutes of pure movie magic. (We can just ignore Timothy Busfield’s brief appearance.)
That’s it for now. See you next week.
Sláinte!!
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