{"id":531248,"date":"2026-03-12T11:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531248\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T11:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:00:12","slug":"mlb-fans-receive-disappointing-barry-bonds-news-on-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531248\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Fans Receive Disappointing Barry Bonds News on Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

On March 25, Netflix will broadcast its first-ever live regular-season Major League Baseball<\/a> game. The streaming giant is taking over Oracle Park for a showdown between the New York Yankees<\/a> and the San Francisco Giants<\/a>. For weeks, fans focused on a mystery. A promotional graphic showed a silhouette of a “Special Guest”. Many expected the greatest home run hitter in the history of the game to return to the spotlight for this historic night.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Netflix revealed its official talent roster. The group includes host Elle Duncan, play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian, and reporter Lauren Shehadi. The booth features 2025 Hall of Fame inductee CC Sabathia and former Giants outfielder Hunter Pence. Sabathia won 134 games during his tenure with the Yankees.<\/p>\n

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The long and short of it is that the mystery guest is not who fans wanted. Columnist Andrew Marchand reported that San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds will not participate in the broadcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo Barry Bonds for Netflix,\u201d Marchand tweeted. \u201cAs in the Athletic this morning, CC Sabathia in on Yanks’ game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reports in February 2026 said Netflix aggressively pursued the legend to provide instant credibility to its new venture.<\/p>\n

“Is Bonds the special guest?” a fan reacted.<\/p>\n

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“Just got a hefty chunk of change from Paramount, can see why they wouldn’t need bonds. *ducks*,” one wrote.<\/p>\n

“Shocking,” another reacted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bonds spent 15 of his 22 seasons with the Giants. He hit 762 career home runs and won five of his seven NL MVP awards with the organization. To honor him, Netflix is placing 73 red kayaks in McCovey Cove to represent the 73 home runs he hit in 2001.<\/p>\n

While Bonds declined the role, the studio desk still has plenty of talent. 11-time All-Star Albert Pujols and Anthony Rizzo will serve as analysts. Comedian Bert Kreischer is also a contributor.<\/p>\n

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In June, Club President Larry Baer said the team intends to install a monument for the slugger at Oracle Park.<\/p>\n

“Barry is certainly deserving of a statue,” Baer said on San Francisco’s 95.7 The Game.<\/p>\n

One slot remains open for a “Special Guest” in the graphic posted by Netflix Sports\u2019 X account. Some hope for a last-minute change, but Marchand said the hunt for the legend is over.<\/p>\n

Related: Giants Insider Sounds Alarm on Barry Bonds\u2019 Hall of Fame Future<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the MLB<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On March 25, Netflix will broadcast its first-ever live regular-season Major League Baseball game. The streaming giant is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49085,16073,73864,78580,49,48,149017,145979,208390,501,143808,462,1316,3980,160917,5886,512,208389,82],"class_list":["post-531248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-albert-pujols","tag-andrew-marchand","tag-anthony-rizzo","tag-barry-bonds","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cc-sabathia","tag-hunter-pence","tag-lauren-shehadi","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-matt-vasgersian","tag-mlb","tag-netflix","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-oracle-park","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-special-guest","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}