“She captures that preteen spirit so perfectly."
Opening Night is supposed to feel like a renewal — the crack of the bat, the smell of fresh-cut grass, the ceremonial first pitch connecting past to present. It’s one of baseball’s most enduring rituals.
So when Netflix used its MLB broadcast debut to hand that moment to a fictional disembodied hand on a skateboard, you can probably guess how the baseball world reacted.
Not well.
The 2026 MLB season opened Wednesday with the New York Yankees visiting the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco.
But before a single pitch of consequence was thrown, the ceremony was hijacked by Thing — the crawling, disembodied hand from Netflix’s popular series Wednesday.
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A video shared by Jomboy Media showed Thing mounted on a skateboard as it made its way onto the field to deliver the ceremonial first pitch.
A separate video shared by Netflix showed Thing skating on top of the dugout before throwing a bag of popcorn to a fan — who, yes, caught it.
The moment was intended as a promotional crossover, a gimmick meant to blur the line between Netflix’s entertainment empire and baseball’s biggest stage.
Jomboy Media’s caption cut right to the bone: “Imagine telling Babe Ruth this is who would be throwing out the first pitch to open the 2026 MLB season.”
Hard to argue with that.
Netflix’s First Pitch Receives Backlash Online
The reaction online was overwhelmingly negative, with fans questioning Netflix’s decision to turn one of baseball’s most sacred pre-game traditions into a corporate advertisement.
“Because we can doesn’t mean we should,” one fan wrote — a sentiment that seemed to capture the mood of the baseball internet.
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“Ewe that’s so creepy,” one fan wrote.
“Let’s make baseball harder to view by exclusively having it on a streaming platform,” another fan wrote. “Lets also have a non human promotional ad of a show on that platform throw out the first pitch.”
Others tried to take the high road but couldn’t hide their resignation. “I don’t love it. I don’t hate it. I just want to watch baseball. I can compartmentalize all of the off-field moves/gimmicks, and enjoy the game,” another fan commented.
Some pointed out the sheer timing of it all. “At least wait until Halloween time in October to do this,” a third fan added.
And then there was the inevitable gallows humor. “Looking forward to the 5th inning when they go downstairs to a Bridgerton actress lustily leering at Aaron Judge,” an X user joked.
That last one stings because it highlights the deeper fear: this isn’t just one weird first pitch. It’s a preview of what baseball on Netflix might look like going forward.
The Bigger Picture
The Thing stunt wasn’t some rogue marketing decision. It was part of Netflix’s broader effort to brand its MLB broadcasts in a way that’s unmistakably Netflix.
The new Netflix deal includes a three-year package for Opening Night, the Home Run Derby and the Field of Dreams game. That means the streaming platform has its hands — no pun intended — on some of baseball’s most tradition-rich events for the foreseeable future.
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The Thing’s first pitch also doubled as a promotional ploy to spark buzz for the upcoming season of Wednesday.
The streaming platform announced the new season in a press release on Feb. 26, 2026. While a release date has yet to be announced, the new season “has begun production near Dublin.”
“We want to continue digging deeper into our characters while expanding the world of Nevermore and Wednesday,” co-creator and co-showrunner Miles Millar said in the press release. “We will be seeing more Addams family members and learning more family secrets in Season 3!”
Good for the Wednesday fan base, perhaps. But for baseball fans who tuned in to watch the Yankees and Giants open the season, the cross-promotion felt like an intrusion — a reminder that Opening Night now belongs, at least in part, to a streaming company with its own content to sell.
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Three years is a long time. If this is what Opening Night looks like in Year One, the traditionalists among us are right to wonder what’s next.
