In 1989, Field of Dreams came out and immortalized baseball’s inextricable relationship with nostalgia. In the now-cult classic film, the late James Earl Jones played Terence Mann, a 1960s author, who guides Kevin Costner’s Ray Kinsella to build a baseball diamond within his Iowan cornfields.
He built it, and the ghosts of baseball past came. Field of Dreams director Phil Alden Robinson made the intertwining of the past and present — the best and worst of not just baseball, but life — look fairly easy. It always looks easier in the movies, especially with fiction at your disposal.
On Thursday night, Netflix exclusively streamed the 2026 MLB Field of Dreams Game and, subsequently, took on the arduous task of recreating fictional magic in live television.
“The goal for Netflix, completely, solely, and honestly cold-heartedly, it’s, what is a major spectacle, whether that’s sports or other, that is going to grab the attention of our viewers on a global scale?” Elle Duncan told Front Office Sports upon departing ESPN for Netflix.
While spectacle is familiar territory for the streaming giant, Netflix is new to MLB. The league formally announced its new media rights deals with Netflix, NBC, and ESPN last November.
So far, Netflix handled the Opening Night broadcast between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants, and had the exclusive rights to the 2026 Home Run Derby in July. Both broadcasts showed promise, but left room for improvement.
Was the third time the charm for Netflix’s MLB coverage? Let’s get into it.
The pregame: a bit oversaturated, but in a good way
Wisely, Netflix opened its Field of Dreams Game broadcast with an aesthetically pleasing video montage of Dyersville, Iowa, including (but not limited to) the Philadelphia Phillies and Minnesota Twins’ players projected onto barns.
Tonight is all about baseball in the cornfields of Iowa
Welcome back to MLB at Field of Dreams
pic.twitter.com/6NzXxQuoya
— Netflix (@netflix) August 13, 2026
Elle Duncan narrated it to start before ceding the stage to the likes of Costner and James Earl Jones’ iconic lines from the original Field of Dreams.
“People will come.”
“As innocent as children, longing for the past.”
“The one constant through all the years […] has been baseball.”
“This field, this game, it’s a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Oh, people will come.”
In the middle of that Iowan cornfield sat Duncan, Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, and Anthony Rizzo. Duncan showed how much she’s already grown in her new Netflix anchor role, while the three MLB legends admitted their jealousy of the Phillies and Twins lucky enough to play in the Field of Dreams Game.
Byron Buxton shares what it’s like to have this #MLBatFieldofDreams moment with his sons.
pic.twitter.com/TjE7MPWkUy
— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) August 13, 2026
Netflix made use of every millisecond of the hour-long pregame broadcast, and there was a lot going on. Did we need a 60-second Brad Paisley’s “Letter to Dad” segment? Probably not! But the country star has ties to MLB, so whatever.
That blip was forgotten anyway by the time Lauren Shehadi delivered a stellar sit-down interview with Don Mattingly and Preston Mattingly.
“I’m grateful for what baseball has offered to me and my family.”
Don Mattingly and his son Preston share what baseball means to them
#MLBatFieldOfDreams with Phillies vs Twins is LIVE NOW on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/l28kOmqjID
— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) August 13, 2026
Bonds, one of baseball’s most enigmatic legends, stole the show with his vulnerability around wishing his late father would “walk out of that corn and play catch with me”:
“What I wouldn’t do to have my dad walk out of that corn and play catch with me.”
Barry Bonds gets emotional sharing what it meant to share the game of baseball with his dad Bobby Bonds
— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) August 13, 2026
The pregame broadcast could be described as an hour of waxing poetic. Well, that’s exactly what it was. Was it too saccharine? Too oversaturated? Maybe in the context of any other MLB broadcast. But the Netflix crew made the trip to Dyersville to squeeze every sentimental ounce out of this game.
Duncan proved a fantastic host, as per usual, indulging in the spectacle and injecting personality with impeccable comedic timing. Bonds, Pujols, and Rizzo offered some actual game commentary, but it was a footnote, as it should have been. Honestly, it would have been weird if the Netflix approached this like any other MLB game.
MLB at Field of Dreams has begun! pic.twitter.com/M201d7hpM9
— Netflix (@netflix) August 13, 2026
Chills as these Hall of Famers arrive to MLB at Field of Dreams pic.twitter.com/FreI1VzjFY
— Netflix (@netflix) August 13, 2026
Baseball’s stars, past and present, emerged from a cornfield. It was not any ordinary night at the ballpark, and, for the most part, Netflix wrote a love letter to baseball purists eager to receive it.
The broadcast: maybe not a home run, but a solid triple
Hey, sometimes truth is better than fiction.
To lead off the game, Phillies All-Star slugger Kyle Schwarber blasted a home run into the corn:
WELCOME TO IOWA
Kyle Schwarber starts MLB at Field of Dreams with a leadoff blast!
(MLB x @BudweiserUSA) pic.twitter.com/FhC8TMjjzV
— MLB (@MLB) August 13, 2026
Schwarber’s bomb briefly delayed the recognition of Netflix’s obnoxiously big scorebug:
Netflix heard the critics on the Opening Day scorebug… and decided to just make an absolutely enormous one.
Here’s how it looks as Kyle Schwarber hits a leadoff homer in the Field of Dreams Game.
pic.twitter.com/NH1cQe58Tdhttps://t.co/WHdUWyF0pY
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 13, 2026
Compare the Netflix scorebug to the one Fox used for the Field of Dreams Game.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 14, 2026
Matt Vasgersian’s call of Schwarber’s opening dinger foreshadowed his excellent call of the game. Vasgersian, Hunter Pence, and CC Sabathia jelled more naturally in their third game sharing the booth, leading to rhythmic flow.
Generally, the broadcast’s strength was leaning into their unique environment — the connective baseball tissue that made this game special — without forgetting they were there to call a ballgame.
Bryce Harper’s corn bat has butter on it
pic.twitter.com/TyYkCooMGZ
— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) August 14, 2026
Perhaps the best example came in the top of the fourth inning. Roger Clemens joined the booth for an in-game interview with his son, Twins utility player Kody Clemens — threading the Field of Dreams father-son theme into the fabric of the broadcast.
Roger Clemens is in the booth while his son Kody Clemens is on the field for the @Twins
— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) August 14, 2026
At one point, the Clemenses let it slip that they planned to film themselves recreating a Field of Dreams scene on the movie set after the game, and they expressed how much they love each other. But when Schwarber unloaded another homer into the corn in right field, the conversation seamlessly pivoted back to ball.
KYLE SCHWARBER AGAIN!
He has TWO homers in the MLB at Field Of Dreams Game! pic.twitter.com/OXjnfdSIED
— MLB (@MLB) August 14, 2026
It was absolutely absurd that tone deaf BetMGM and FanDuel ads sprawled across the outfield fence, but Netflix didn’t build the stadium, so that criticism should be directed elsewhere.
Nothing like a little irony here in Iowa. In a game built, in part, around the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson and his second chance after being banned as part of the Black Sox scandal, there are gambling ads in each outfield corner. pic.twitter.com/PwYjphw20I
— Anthony SanFilippo (@AntSanPhilly) August 13, 2026
The Phillies pummeled the Twins, 7-1, but there were still some highlights: one Brandon Marsh home run, two Schwarber bombs, and nine Aaron Nola strikeouts. And whatever the broadcast lacked in competitive drama, it made up for in Field of Dreams-esque anecdotes and entertaining banter about anything from corn to nerdy baseball stuff.
By the end of the night, the scorebug proved to be the broadcast’s most egregious misstep. Sure, the viewing experience was a bit of a slog down the stretch, thanks to a lack of game action. But viewers who stuck around were rewarded in the postgame.
Lauren Shehadi’s postgame interview with Field of Dreams Game MVP Kyle Schwarber was solid on its own, and then Anthony Rizzo crashed it to deliver his (actually funny?) “corny dad jokes,” validating his burgeoning media stardom.
These jokes from @ARizzo44 were extremely corny
pic.twitter.com/TwqIxDM8ju
— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) August 14, 2026
Kyle Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo enjoying some corn at #MLBatFieldofDreams
pic.twitter.com/s7M6VQJThJ
— MLB (@MLB) August 14, 2026
Aaron Nola and Bryce Harper joined Duncan, Bonds, and Pujols at the desk for a thorough review of the game itself, including a wholesome exchange between Bonds and Harper, before we got the narrative payoff of Kody and Roger Clemens having a catch on the original Field of Dreams field, just like they promised they would.
Roger Clemens and his son Kody Clemens played a game of catch on the original Field of Dreams set after tonight’s game
— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) August 14, 2026
This is every father & son’s baseball dream come true
Roger and Kody Clemens share a game of catch on the original film set
— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) August 14, 2026
The verdict
The third time was the charm. The MLB Field of Dreams Game is pretty impossible to screw up, it turns out. The pregame broadcast was the main event. The game broadcast held its own as best it could during a 7-1 blowout smack in the middle of August. What more can you ask of Netflix’s third-ever MLB broadcast?
Earlier Thursday, Pat Sajak, the iconic Wheel of Fortune host tweeted, “Does it seem a bit ironic that MLB’s Field of Dreams game—which harkens back to a simpler, more bucolic time—is being streamed on Netflix?”
Sajak’s point stands. It is ironic to stream a game inspired by a movie rooted in the 1900s. And there is something about watching baseball on Fox — including Fox’s incredible 2021 and 2022 Field of Dreams Game broadcasts — that just feels right.
But time moves on. Pat Sajak retires from Wheel of Fortune, and baseball moves to streaming. The inevitability of change is what makes nostalgia such a powerful phenomenon. That’s the crux of the Field of Dreams Game. The Netflix crew embraced the age-old traditions of the past, blazed a new path in baseball’s present, and instilled confidence in a brighter MLB on Netflix future.
The post Review: Netflix rewarded patience with MLB Field of Dreams Game broadcast appeared first on Awful Announcing.