Bert Kreischer Netflix MLB Credit Netflix via Cespedes BBQ
By Matt Yoder on

Major League Baseball kicked off the 2026 season unlike ever before, with the national pastime’s first telecast on the global streaming giant Netflix. And in case it was lost on you that you were watching the game on Netflix, Netflix was very eager to remind you that you were watching on Netflix.

There was a lot to like about the Netflix pregame show. Elle Duncan anchored the main set, continuing in her role as the face of the streamer’s sports coverage. And the statement made by having home run king Barry Bonds in his first gig as a television analyst speaks for itself. The fact that it was in San Francisco where he set all those home run records made it even more of an occasion. Then you add in two Hall of Famers in C.C. Sabathia and Albert Pujols, and a widely sought-after personality like Anthony Rizzo, and it showed that Netflix was going to pull out all the stops.

And the picture quality? Second to none.

But there was also a ton of cross-promotion to remind baseball fans of all the other things you can see on Netflix, in addition to the commercials on the pregame show, which were largely focused on Netflix programming. The streamer also baked in plenty of crossover opportunities into its coverage.

  • Recently retired WWE superstar John Cena ran through the ABS system that will be new to the game this year. That, of course, was an opportunity to promote his upcoming movie, Little Brother, exclusively on Netflix.
  • Comedian Bert Kreischer, star of the Netflix series Free Bert, was in a kayak in McCovey Cove because he is contractually obligated to appear on every live Netflix sporting event. And INCREDIBLY, he wasn’t wearing a shirt. That almost led us to a promo for the Netflix movie Thrash, which can only be described as a reinterpretation of Sharknado. Kreischer then returned later on in the festivities, actually wearing an MLB hoodie this time, to introduce the two teams on the field.
  • We had a teaser trailer for the Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 cartoon series, complete with a bat with spikes in it on the set. Apparently, it wasn’t going to be used during the game itself.
  • At 8:20 p.m. ET, a full 20 minutes after the start of actual game coverage, after the national anthem, and after pregame introductions, WWE superstar Jey Uso was then introduced to the crowd as a promo for Monday Night Raw.
  • Amazingly, the one thing that Netflix didn’t show was Thing from The Addams Family throwing out the first pitch, which may have been the one thing actually worth seeing, just for the curiosity factor alone. I mean, seriously, how does a severed hand throw a baseball?!?

From one perspective, you really can’t blame Netflix for going all in on trying to communicate to baseball fans what they may be able to see on the platform. There are plenty of new subscribers who have come in to watch this baseball game, and Netflix is going to do all it can to keep them on the platform. That’s the entire economic system that makes this work. But it’s not like the efforts were very subtle.

Those watching at home definitely noticed the very heavy Netflix influence.

With an hour-long pregame show, the good news is that there was still plenty of insightful baseball-focused content that shows real promise for Netflix’s future with the game. The extended dialogue on set was good; live and taped interviews with new Giants manager Tony Vitello and Yankees superstar Aaron Judge went in-depth; there was behind-the-scenes, mic’d-up action; and at least some people probably thought the stuff with Jameis Winston was fun.

But maybe next time, Netflix might want to pull back on the self-promotion a little bit. Any more and we would have had Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols competing in the next Squid Game.

About Matt Yoder

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