Netflix is pursuing Barry Bonds to be part of its exclusive coverage on Opening Day when the San Francisco Giants host the New York Yankees on March 25, sources briefed on the discussions told The Athletic.<\/p>\n
If a deal comes to fruition, Bonds is likely to be on site for the pregame and the postgame. An agreement is not yet in place.<\/p>\n
On the Yankees\u2019 side, Netflix is trying to sign Hall of Famer CC Sabathia, according to those same sources. Sabathia has previously been a regular on MLB Network\u2019s \u201cClubhouse Edition\u201d show and had a podcast with ESPN\u2019s Ryan Ruocco. Sabathia has also occasionally appeared on the Yankees\u2019 YES Network, but not as a regular contributor.<\/p>\n
Netflix declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Netflix inked ex-ESPN anchor Elle Duncan as its lead studio host for all of its sports. Duncan is expected to be the top presenter on the pregame and postgame programs for Opening Day.<\/p>\n
Netflix has not yet named its play-by-play announcer or game analysts for Opening Day. This is the first of a three-year deal the service agreed to with Major League Baseball. Netflix will also host the Home Run Derby before the All-Star Game and the \u201cField of Dreams\u201d game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Minnesota Twins in Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 13.<\/p>\n
Bonds, the all-time major-league leader in home runs with 762, spent the final 15 seasons of his career leading the Giants. He retired in 2007.<\/p>\n
Despite being considered one of the greatest players of all time, Bonds is not in the Hall of Fame because of his association with performance-enhancing drugs. He received 66 percent of the vote in his final year on the Baseball Writers\u2019 Association of America ballot in 2022, which was 9 percent short of the 75 percent needed for induction.<\/p>\n
Bonds, 61, would potentially be a match for the derby as well, considering his home run prowess. If Netflix were to sign Bonds, he would not be the first with a standout career marked by scandal to join a studio show.<\/p>\n
Alex Rodriguez, who served a suspension in 2014 for performance-enhancing drug usage, has been with Fox Sports for nearly a decade. And before bringing on A-Rod, Fox had the late Pete Rose, who was banned for life for gambling on the game.<\/p>\n
Bonds previously returned to baseball after retirement when he was the hitting coach for the Florida Marlins in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netflix is pursuing Barry Bonds to be part of its exclusive coverage on Opening Day when the San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,4,62,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,165],"class_list":{"0":"post-566687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york-yankees","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-giants","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-giants","18":"tag-sfgiants","19":"tag-sports-business"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116053538597966825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}