{"id":632507,"date":"2026-03-19T22:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/632507\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T22:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:48:15","slug":"sf-giants-legend-barry-bonds-to-join-netflixs-opening-night-broadcast-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/632507\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Giants legend Barry Bonds to join Netflix’s Opening Night broadcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona \u2014 The Giants\u2019 Opening Night matchup<\/a> against the New York Yankees will mark Netflix\u2019s first-ever live MLB broadcast, and the streaming platform is bringing on the home run king for the ride.<\/p>\n

Netflix announced on Thursday morning that Barry Bonds<\/a>, the all-time and single-season record holder in home runs, will be a desk analyst as the Giants host the Yankees next Wednesday, the only game on the schedule that day.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the San Francisco Standard reported<\/a> earlier this month that there will be 73 red, Netflix-branded kayaks floating in McCovey Cove, one for every home run that Bonds hit in 2001 when he set the single-season record.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I get thrown out, maybe I\u2019ll get in one of those,\u201d manager Tony Vitello said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Between the Giants\u2019 Rafael Devers and the Yankees\u2019 Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice, there will be plenty of players capable of sending a ball to the kayaks. Along with the left-handed hitters, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Heliot Ramos<\/a> (the first and only righty hitter with a Splash Hit) all have enough right-handed power to land one in the water.<\/p>\n

Bonds, a seven-time MVP who again fell short of election<\/a> to the National Baseball Hall of Fame this past December, will be one of many stars who will be a part of the broadcast.<\/p>\n

Three-time MVP Albert Pujols, who ranks fourth on the all-time home run list, and three-time All-Star Anthony Rizzo will also serve as analysts. Hall of Famer and Vallejo native CC Sabathia<\/a> and former Giant Hunter Pence will be in the booth alongside Matt Vasgersian, who will have play-by-play duties.<\/p>\n

The pregame show will begin at 4 p.m. PT, and first pitch will be at 5:05 p.m. PT with two-time All-Star Logan Webb<\/a> set to make his fifth consecutive Opening Day start.<\/p>\n

An active Netflix subscription is all that\u2019s needed to watch the game. Opening Night will not be broadcast on NBC Sports Bay Area, but the game will be broadcast on KNBR 680\/104.5 FM.<\/p>\n

With the Giants and Yankees playing on Opening Night, both teams will have an off day on Thursday, which will be Opening Day for the league\u2019s 28 other teams.<\/p>\n

Along with Opening Night, Netflix will broadcast the Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia on July 13, along with the Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville, Iowa on Aug. 13. Netflix will broadcast the season openers in 2027 and \u201928, as well, under an agreement MLB announced in November<\/a> that included Sunday night games on NBC and midweek games on ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know from watching his career, hitting-wise, I\u2019m like, \u2018Man, Barry would be perfect for this guy\u2019 or \u2018This drill that I know he did would be perfect for this guy,\u2019\u201d Vitello said. \u201cI look forward to him being around, because I know it\u2019s been functional visits in the past. He\u2019s either talked with guys or just expressed how he did things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a Five Guys parking lot when he first reached out to me, so pretty cool to have that contact in the phone. But I also am excited about the functionality that will come from him and some of the other guys that weren\u2019t able to come around during spring training.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCOTTSDALE, Arizona \u2014 The Giants\u2019 Opening Night matchup against the New York Yankees will mark Netflix\u2019s first-ever live…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,192,2178,4,378,66,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-632507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-atlantabraves","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-braves","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-san-francisco","16":"tag-san-francisco-giants","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116258282430231484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632507","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=632507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}