Everything is going to streaming. All the best TV shows, access to your favorite movies, and now live sports are making their way over, tempted by big budgets and supposed eyeballs.

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But as we’ve seen, to the chagrin of some streamers and even their leagues, the lure of big budgets and new eyeballs doesn’t always pan out. And that leaves us, the consumers, left to suffer the consequences.

Netflix making the move recently to air live boxing matches, who can forget how poorly that went the first go around, and have also carried NFL games over the last several seasons. And for the 2026 season, per a new 3-year deal, the streaming giant aired the first MLB game of the season. Something they called “Opening Night” pulling from the long time tradition of “Opening Day” for the league.

And I’m not going to say it was all bad. Some of the unique camera angles during look in’s from around the stadium looked great. Bert Kreisher as a sort of pre-game and in-game host had its moments. And the player introductions saw players from the Yankees enter the field between a set of dancers and NYC yellow cabs while the Giants entered from the iconic San Francisco cable cars.

It all brought a big game feel to an event the league, and it’s broadcast partners, have routinely gotten criticism for under promoting. But there was still a baseball game.

That always seems to be the part that these new streaming partners seem to forget. The team in the booth for the game included Matt Vasgersian, an MLB announcing pro who will also be calling games for NBC this season (more on them later), and a pair of former MLB players in Hunter Pence, former Giant, and CC Sabathia, former Yankee, on the call.

Vasgersian was fine and has plenty of reps in the industry calling games, but Pence and Sabathia came across as under prepared and obviously lacking the reps to have been put in such a spot. They were there for the team connections, but added nothing to the broadcast unfortunately.

But on top of that, they completely missed maybe the biggest call of the game, the first challenge in the new ABS system.

MLB implemented a new challenge system this year that batters, pitchers, and catchers can challenge a called ball or strike if they disagree with that call from the umpire. It was a historic moment, a key moment to having the first game of the season and the first time it happens....EVER....and it’s barely a passing blurb because they couldn’t pull away from yet another in-game interview they were doing.

Netflix may be just the latest to dip their toe into sports streaming, joining what is the inevitable trend. But if they want it to be a success, it may be a good idea to make sure to listen to the group that consistently bring their eyes and ears to the product, not just chasing the quick, fleeting glance of an on-demand world.

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