Opening Night

Major League Baseball's new-look "Opening Night" has come and gone. The Yankees throttled the Giants, 7-0. Aaron Judge struck out four times. Max Fried was unhittable. Tony Vitello probably misses Knoxville at the moment. You know, usual opening night stuff for MLB. The big story around Wednesday, though? Netflix. This was the streaming giant's foray into baseball, and buddy, it was a rocky little ride. Now, that's to be expected. There were always going to be bumps in the road, and there were several here. Elle Duncan was insufferable and didn't know what home plate was. Seems like a problem for an MLB pregame show. I'm not quite sure what the point of Jameis Winston was. The scorebug was for folks with 20/20 vision only, and even then, it was a stretch. The interview with Rob Manfred was pathetic. Lauren Shehadi was, frankly, the only good part of the broadcast because she's a pro, and she's a star for obvious reasons. Otherwise? It was tough. But all of that pales in comparison to what Netflix did – or, better yet, missed – in the fourth inning. For the first time in MLB history, ABS was used. Unfortunately, we'll never get to see it:Goodness gracious. What a miss by Netflix here. What an absolute swing and a miss. HOW does the producer not switch to the scoreboard here? There are a billion camera operators in this production, and you're telling me NONE of them were dialed in on the scoreboard?We've talked about this ABS system for years now. Years. We just spent all spring training watching clips of it. People bitched and moaned all throughout the World Baseball Classic because it wasn't in use. And then, on Opening Night, we finally get a challenge in the fourth inning. The first EVER ball/strike challenge in MLB history … and Netflix missed the entire thing because they were interviewing Tony Vitello in the dugout. Amazing. It's not like it all happened too quick, either. It didn't. The batter had to tap his helmet. The umpire had to call timeout. He had to announce it to the crowd (dumb). They all had to stare at the scoreboard and wait a few seconds. Netflix had plenty of time to switch over and, at the very least, show us the review. But they just … missed the entire thing! The whole sequence. Gone. Poof. Never happened. They never showed the actual pitch, or the actual ABS in use. They only briefly showed the batter and umpire staring at a screen that WE COULDN'T SEE! Oh well. What's done is done. We don't have to deal with Netflix again until the Home Run Derby. I assume they will have the kinks worked out by then. Thank God they've got four months, too, because they're gonna need all the time they can get.