Should you watch Netflix tonight, or the All-Star Game?
Fumbling the remote control as we slide toward pay-for-everything sports television – it’ll be here during President Trump’s fourth term – it’s easy to get confused looking for the right channel.
Two pals weren’t sure if there was an All-Star Game Home Run Derby Monday night. They couldn’t find it on TV. Turned out that wasn’t totally terrible.
I have Netflix, which covered the derby including an hour-long pregame show. By the time the slugging began, I found myself watching “Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning,” a Netflix documentary that was infinitely more compelling than the production that unfolded live from Citizens Bank Park in the so-called “City of Brotherly Love,” where fans didn’t invent booing, but they have perfected it.
The ASG Home Run Derby began in 1985. On its own, generally a highly-entertaining product. But Netflix coverage had too much mustard on the hot dog.
Netflix is laying out $50 million to MLB in a three-year deal to air the derby, Opening Night and the Field of Dreams Game on Aug. 13.
That kind of jack buys the right to dress up the product considerably. It was always gonna be different, forecast one TV honcho in a Sports Business Daily preview.
“The thing that they continue to do is they ‘eventize’ their programming. That’s their verb, and they’ve made good use of it,” said an enthusiastic Lee Berke, president and CEO of LHB Sports, Entertainment and Media. “They were able to do that with the Giants-Yankees game on Opening Day, and I’m intrigued to see what they’re going to do with Home Run Derby. They’re going to try things out in baseball, and baseball distribution is ripe for innovation.”
Netflix swung and missed plenty. An hour into its overcooked coverage, we got actors/comics Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson and somebody named Jimmy Tatro, a YouTube sensation who I’m not hipster enough to know about, involved in the player introductions. Not a good fit.
They bantered with Buffer, and it didn’t come off well at all. Michael Buffer is a Philly native. He is the voice of a once-significant sport, boxing, and Philadelphia was home base for the iconic Sylvester Stallone “Rocky” movie series. Buffer did player intros for the 2024 Home Run Derby. I get it.
I don’t have to like it. His intros were cheesy. Buffer seemed to catch himself a few times just before he used a boxing phrase instead of talking baseball – and he was working from a script.
I flipped over to the Thorpe doc. Worth your time.
A few more MLB sour grapes …
In the city where the Declaration of Independence was composed 250 summers ago, the democratic process doesn’t mean a lot when it came to picking sluggers to participate. Poor Hunter Goodman and his 27 apparently insignificant dingers this season. The Rockies catcher has more homers than five of the eight guys picked to pound away Monday night. He IS in Philadelphia, on the National League roster for the All-Star Game. Not in the derby. Make that make sense.
My Pittsburgh Pirates have scored more runs than any other MLB team (you can look it up, I kid you not!). Not one of the Allegheny Lumber Company sluggers made the ASG.
I hope tonight’s game surprises me. Two years ago, we had some cool local rooting interest: Parkway and Centenary product Seth Lugo was pitching for the American League, and also in that dugout was Northwestern State utility man David Fry, who went on to be a playoff hero for Cleveland.
As for tonight — at least we won’t have to watch it on Netflix.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com