Barry Bonds throws out the first pitch before the game at Oracle Park on July 12, 2025, in San Francisco.

The first game of the San Francisco Giants’ season, broadcast on Netflix, will officially feature the home run king.

After weeks of rumors, Netflix announced on Thursday that Barry Bonds will be on the desk for the Opening Night broadcast when the Giants kick off the 2026 MLB season against the Yankees on March 25.

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Bonds’ possible appearance was first reported by the Athletic last month, who said the streamer was “pursuing” him but hadn’t gotten an agreement in place yet. When Netflix announced the eight people on its broadcast team two weeks before the game, it included a ninth spot for a “special guest” that was otherwise blank.

Netflix signed a three-year deal with MLB to broadcast three major events, starting with next week’s Opening Night. (The other events are the Home Run Derby and the Field of Dreams game.) The exclusivity for the first game was a major selling point on the deal, meaning Giants fans will have no local telecast of its coverage.

The streamer has reportedly been preparing to make quite the spectacle in San Francisco tied to Bonds, with the San Francisco Standard reporting Netflix is supplying 73 red kayaks — matching the number from Bonds’ single-season home run record in 2001 — that will be in McCovey Cove on Wednesday night.

Bonds was considered a pariah in the sport as he chased and eventually passed Henry Aaron for the all-time home run record in the 2000s. While he’s always been beloved in San Francisco, the rest of the baseball world seemed to view the allegations of steroid use and his general unfriendliness as reason to prevent Bonds from plaudits, including election into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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Bonds has largely stayed out of the general baseball world’s public eye since he retired in 2007, save for spending one season as a hitting coach for the Marlins in 2016 and helping the Giants as a guest instructor. For the most part, the most public thing he did was ride his bicycle and post his times on Strava. But in recent years, Bonds has become a more forward-facing ex-player on the media circuit. He’s done more podcasts as each year has gone by, and Bonds had a hilarious guest appearance on Fox’s telecast of the special Rickwood Field game in 2024.

Now, Bonds will be joined by host Elle Duncan and fellow ex-MLB sluggers Albert Pujols and Anthony Rizzo on Netflix’s “analyst desk” for its coverage, which is set to start at 4 p.m. ahead of a scheduled 5:05 p.m. first pitch. 

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