Maybe Netflix is to blame for Giants’ lousy home opener

Fanfare of opening night for the Giants in San Francisco on March 25. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

It’s a good thing winning the season opener doesn’t have much bearing on whether a team will win the World Series that year.

“Statistically speaking, how important is opening day to a team in regard to a championship season? The answer is not that much,” Baseball Almanac’s website says.

The Giants stunk up Oracle Park in so many ways on opening night, opening day and during the third game of the series against the Yankees. It’s not good when you get shut out twice and only score one run in 27 innings.

The one bright spot on opening night is SF pitcher Logan Webb’s 1,000 strike out. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

I’ve been to several opening day games, but this was a first for a night opener. It was weird this year with hoopla planned for the night and day game openers. Even more weird there was a day off between the two games. Having a series being split by an off day is such a rarity.

All the previous day openers had an energy about them that was missing from this night opener on March 25. Sure, there was the festive decorative bunting around the park, military planes flew over, and the place was packed. But something was off beyond the lousy play by the men in orange and black.

I can’t put my finger on what the difference was; especially since I was not at the day opener to make a comparison.

The best part was having former managers Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker throw out the first pitches. It would have been fun to hear from those two. Maybe those listening to the TV and/or radio broadcasts got to.

Maybe the difference was this was a Netflix production. Everything I read about it afterward was negative. But it’s hard for me to understand how that subpar broadcast permeated the actual ballpark to affect those of us in the stands.

Maybe the Giants and MLB deferred to Netflix, which reached about 3 million people in the U.S. that night compared to the 40,000-plus in the stands. Maybe the broadcast worked for younger people. Maybe younger people in the stadium thought everything was just fine.

Netflix paid an outfitter to have the kayaks painted for the TV broadcast. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

According to ratings from Nielsen, this night opener, which was the only game played that day, represented the youngest MLB opening day audience in a decade.

The atmosphere was so different from two nights earlier at the exhibition game against a team from Mexico. A game that doesn’t count in the 162-game season.

Without facts to back it up, I’m blaming the opener on Netflix. After all, they paid for all the kayaks in McCovey Cove and had a large N floatie out in the water. The dancing girls isn’t baseball, it’s not the Giants. It was a TV production that didn’t translate for the fans at the ballpark.

Netflix’s three-event MLB slate also includes the Home Run Derby on July 13 and Field of Dreams on Aug. 13.

I’m sure the “normal” Giants atmosphere will be on display when I return to the ballpark.