Major League Baseball's Opening Day should not be pay-per-view on Netflix

Opening Day used to be reserved for the Cincinnati Reds, an annual reward for being the first professional team. But then the owner turned out to be a racist lover of fascism and baseball decided it needed a bigger draw than the Reds and MLB needed to “grow the game.”

Which is code for adding billions of dollars to the baseball coffers.

Now, if you’re a baseball fan, you couldn’t get a juicer matchup than MLB royalty in Wednesday’s opener — the New York Yankees taking on the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park, possibly the crown jewel ballpark in baseball.

Two problems. One, it was not opening “day,” it was opening “twilight” with a 5 p.m. start. The bigger problem, however, is the fact the game is being streamed on Netflix — which goes back to baseball putting even more money into its collective pockets, again, under the guise of growing the game by bringing it to a worldwide audience.

At least Netflix made it a production to go along with the importance of the game. Giants’ radio broadcaster Dave Flemming said on 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” radio show Wednesday morning that Netflix had enough trucks and equipment to rival a Super Bowl.

But there are less than 70 million Netflix subscribers in the United States, which reportedly has roughly 170 million admitted baseball fans.

So while baseball is trying to take its game global, it’s doing so at the expense of two-thirds of American fans.

I get baseball is trying to grow out of its regional identity and putting the Yankees and Giants in the spotlight on the biggest day of the season is great way to do that. But shouldn’t baseball’s Opening Day be for the people, for baseball fans? Why not put it on national, broadcast television? When you add up 162 games per 30 teams, that’s a lot of baseball games to be distributed to all the streaming platforms.

And yet there was absolutely no buzz on television about the baseball season Wednesday morning. Not one mention of baseball on ESPN, which purports to the “sports leader.” It got out of baseball so it can air more yelling, talking heads, breakdown LeBron James’ latest antics and go over the NFL with a fine-tooth comb, despite being five months away from training camp.

Nothing about baseball on TBS, TNT, FOX or NBC, that all have some piece of baseball broadcasts this season, along with the regional sports networks, which in the Bay Area is NBC Sports Bay Area.

I do realize that with the rise of the cable TV industry in the 1980s and 1990s, “pay-per-view” has been the way to watch any type of television, sports or otherwise, for 30 to 40 years. But it feels like you’re having to tack on another eight bucks to watch a game. And while everyone will say, “Just get the free preview and then cancel,” how many people actually follow through with it?

I got Netflix only a few months ago — for a boxing match. Now I have Netflix.

I still don’t like that I have to pay extra to watch a baseball game, especially in the home team’s market.

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The robots are coming! The robots are coming!

We’ve heard for the last several years about “robots” taking over for MLB umpires in handling the chore of calling balls and strikes. No more individual strike zones for home plate umpires. No more whining about missed pitches. Even less human element in the game.

The reality is, there are no actual “robots” — metal humanoids standing behind the plate, monotonously calling balls and strikes. It is actually a series of cameras set up to recreate the strike zone in two dimensions. It’s called Automated Ball/Strike System, and it’s in the big leagues for 2026.

Another dagger in the heart of baseball purists, but maybe not as bad as some think it could be. While there was talk of having the cameras call all pitches, the umpire’s union must be a strong one because the procedure in games will be more like the NFL’s challenge system.

Only two incorrect pitching challenges are allowed per game, with the team retaining its challenge if correct. Additionally, only the pitcher, catcher and batter can challenge a pitch.

Will it have much of an impact? Geraldo Perdomo certainly would have liked to challenge the pitch that struck him out to eliminate Dominican Republic in the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic.

Assuming the DR had any challenges left.

Nathan Mollat has been covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal since 2001. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.