Netflix’s Major League Baseball debut was the sports TV equivalent of a three-ring circus. Thankfully for the streaming giant, it had Elle Duncan as its ringmaster.
The former ESPN anchor was the best thing about Netflix’s leadoff coverage of MLB’s Opening Night game between the Yankees and Giants. Duncan was fun, funny, and likable. She gently but firmly kept three TV novices—ex-MLB stars-turned-analysts Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, and Anthony Rizzo—on track during the pregame show.
That’s not easy to do, especially when you’re dealing with a monstrous ego like Bonds.
Call me old-fashioned, but it still burns me to see ex-athletes like Bonds—whose disdain for the media during his playing career was well documented—suddenly join the dark side in retirement. Nonetheless, the all-time home run king shared some interesting stories, such as hanging up on the Yankees when the late George Steinbrenner tried to bring the then-free agent to the Bronx in 1993.
There were other strong moments, too. Rizzo did well, interviewing his former Yankees teammate, Aaron Judge. He seems like a natural for TV. Play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian, game analysts Hunter Pence and CC Sabathia, and sideline reporter Lauren Shehadi were solid pros.
But Netflix also had plenty of problems that ticked off viewers.
The main centerfield camera offered a hazy, washed-out look that was distracting. Meanwhile, the virtual Adobe ad behind home plate glowed bright red.
Yankees shortstop Jose Caballero made history as the first player to challenge a pitch under the new automated ball-strike system. But Netflix missed it because it was in the middle of an in-game interview with Giants manager Tony Vitello.
I needed binoculars to read Netflix’s tiny scorebug from my recliner. My online feed similarly lit up with complaints about the scorebug.
Back to the circus comparison, shirtless comedian Bert Kreischer didn’t add much, either on the field or in his kayak in McCovey Cove. NFL QB Jameis Winston has a bright future in sports media, but he was miscast in a baseball game.
To top it all off, the first pitch was delayed 25 minutes as Netflix deployed all its bells and whistles around Oracle Park. That’s BS. If you tell viewers the game starts at 8 p.m., then play ball at 8 p.m.
As you can tell by now, this wasn’t a telecast for baseball purists. As Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke tweeted: “The Netflix baseball debut wasn’t impressive. Analysts weren’t enlightening and…Jameis Winston? That was awful.”
Duncan’s pregame coverage, meanwhile, provided the rare bright spot.
This wasn’t her first sporting event for Netflix and its 300 million-plus global subscribers. That was “Skyscraper Live,” a livestream of free climber Alex Honnold scaling one of the world’s tallest buildings on Jan. 24. Her performance there was polarizing, and even she agreed with some of the criticism. But this was the one that counted.
If this was the former SportsCenter anchor’s first true foray for the streaming giant, Duncan passed the test with flying colors. Her performance bodes well for her role as the face of Netflix Sports, whose portfolio includes MLB, WWE Raw, various boxing events, and the NFL on Christmas Day.
As Duncan recently told Front Office Sports‘s Baker Machado about her new employer: “They speak my language. They speak spectacles, big events, how do we make it bigger? I love that. That’s my love language.”
As for the streamer’s baseball coverage, for better or worse, Wednesday was only the first inning. Thanks to a three-year, $150 million deal with MLB, Netflix has exclusive rights to the only MLB game on Opening Night, the Home Run Derby, and the Field of Dreams game.
