We’re skipping the usual format today and I’m just writing on one topic. Before we get to it, you need to know that we have two SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcasts for you this week.
We dropped a new episode on Thursday with NBC’s Jason Benetti, who talks about becoming the voice of Sunday Night Baseball.
We also have an episode with the SNY Mets crew of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling.
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Listen to those podcasts, subscribe to SI Media With Jimmy Traina and leave a review on Apple. On to the column…
Thank goodness Netflix only airs two real baseball games a season. Thank GOODNESS!
In a new three-year deal with Major League Baseball, Netflix now has the rights to Opening Night and a “special event game,” such as the “Field of Dreams” game, each year. And after what we saw Wednesday night, two games a season is too many for Netflix.
I’m not going to get into the fact that MLB spit on every baseball fan by selling Opening Night to Netflix. And I’m not going to get into the money aspect of this because at the end of the day the partnership is simply about Netflix giving MLB $50-$60 million because baseball needs every penny it can get and Netflix paying that money to baseball so it can spend four hours promoting all its shows.
It was more than clear Wednesday night that Major League Baseball and Netflix do not care one iota about the baseball fan. So, I’m just going to focus on the abomination that was the actual game telecast.
I put Netflix on at 8 p.m. ET because the game was supposed to start at 8:05. Yet, I still had to sit through Bert Kreischer and a WWE guy screaming at the crowd and acting like crazy people. What this does, what this adds to the viewing experience, I don’t understand.
Then the game didn’t start until almost 8:30 p.m.
When it did start, the picture was gray, hazy and fuzzy all night. When we got the camera shot from behind the mound of the pitcher throwing to the batter, it looked like smoke from fireworks was still lingering in the air. See for yourself below.
Ryan McMahon brings home two more runs! pic.twitter.com/hhNuvUoGTe
— MLB (@MLB) March 26, 2026
In addition, from the second the game finally started until it ended, the entire telecast was a commercial for all of Netflix’s other programming. The promotion was relentless and intrusive.
Then we were treated to Netflix missing the first ABS challenge in major league history because it was busy interviewing Giants manager Tony Vitello. Memo to Netflix and all other networks that air MLB games: The in-game interview with managers are useless, add nothing and don’t provide anything to the viewer.
Talk about bad timing. The first ABS challenge in MLB history happened during an in-game interview. pic.twitter.com/8K50mO9Lka
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 26, 2026
Then we had Matt Vasgersian, Hunter Pence and CC Sabathia conduct an “interview” with Rob Manfred in which they did not ask anything about the current labor situation. They just threw four softballs—and “softballs” is a massive understatement—at the commissioner. If you want to make the argument that Opening Night isn’t the time to ask about a possible lockout, fine. I’ll give you that. But for Sabathia to use his time with Manfred to ask, “Can we get a 10-run rule?” is just mind-boggling on every level.
They asked 4 questions:
What was your first opening day?
When did you fall in love with baseball?
Can we get a 10 run rule?
Isn’t ABS great?
That’s just pathetic.
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) March 26, 2026
You could not have turned off viewers more with a presentation of a game than Netflix did on Opening Night. And it is more evident than ever before that networks and leagues could not possibly care less about your legit sports fan.
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