The Netflix broadcast of a Major League Baseball game sparked a wide variety of comments from fans. Some enjoyed the experience while others highlighted some significant miscues.
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An example is the first-ever regular-season use of the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS). The Netflix broadcast missed this historic moment due to an ongoing interview with San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello.
For context, the ABS allows a batter to immediately challenge a call made by a human umpire. A graphic showing the strike zone and the location of the ball is then transmitted to those in attendance and those viewing at home. This provides an opportunity for a batter or pitcher to initiate a challenge and potentially overturn a significant call.
Teams start the game with two possible challenges. They retain one of these if they make a successful challenge attempt.
So what happened during the Yankees-Giants tilt? Yankees shortstop José Caballero challenged a strike call during the fourth inning. He tapped his helmet and initiated the challenge. The call, a pitch to the right corner of the strike zone, remained the same after the challenge.
Jose Caballero lost the first challenge in MLB history pic.twitter.com/gpvrqRn3bQ
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) March 26, 2026
The Netflix broadcast never provided any indication that a challenge had taken place. The fancy graphic that has shown up during spring training never appeared, and no one acknowledged the historic moment. The interview just continued.
Some muffled audio from the public address system filtering through the broadcast served as the only indication of the challenge at the time. The play-by-play team did ultimately comment on the situation after the interview ended.
While the Yankees-Giants game featured a missed challenge, another game showed the rule change in its full form. The Mets tapped the cap and challenged a call after Freddy Peralta pitched against Pirates batter Oneil Cruz.
The original call was a ball, which sent Cruz to first base. However, the challenge overturned the call to a strike, Cruz's third. It sent the Pirates batter back to the dugout.
