At least for one night, Barry Bonds is returning to our television screens — though we’ll almost certainly be robbed of him crushing yet another home run into the San Francisco Bay.
Netflix confirmed on Thursday that Bonds, the all-time home run king, will contribute to the streaming service’s Opening Night coverage next Wednesday. Bonds will join Albert Pujols, Anthony Rizzo, and host Elle Duncan on Netflix’s pregame and postgame desk for the matchup between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants. The Yankees play the Giants in a battle of two teams hoping that the first game will be a sign of things to come as they hope to erase decade–long title droughts.
We’re a long way removed from Bonds being the face of Major League Baseball’s performance–enhancing drug problems, and not just because he hasn’t played since September 2007. In fact, Bonds getting a chance to appear on Netflix’s first baseball game is more proof that much of the baseball world has moved on from those scandals, even if he remains persona non grata in Cooperstown.
Barry Bonds’ Netflix appearance only proves the anger about the steroid era is all but over
Before we go any further, I want to make something clear: I have no issue with Bonds doing any type of broadcast work, nor should any baseball fans try to take a moral high ground now. We can’t truly call Netflix out when Alex Rodriguez has been a staple of Fox’s MLB coverage for years, as was Pete Rose.
With that said, I always find it both interesting and telling how much of the baseball world has seemingly moved on from any lingering resentment and anger directed toward both the alleged and proven PED users. The Yankees welcomed Rodriguez back to the 2009 World Series reunion in 2024, and both the Red Sox and Guardians did the same with Manny Ramírez. Francisco Cervelli, who served a 50–game suspension related to the Biogenesis scandal, managed Team Italy in the 2026 World Baseball Classic and has been floated as a potential MLB managerial candidate.
At this point, it feels like the only people still angry with players tied to PEDs are former players and Hall of Fame voters. Ramírez fell off the ballot after 10 years and never came close to induction, and the same has happened to Rodriguez. Longtime Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun didn’t even make it to a second year on the ballot; he received only 3.5% of the vote this past January. Regardless of how high a bWAR Fernando Tatis Jr. finishes with, there is almost no chance he’ll make the Hall.
So, if neither Bonds nor Roger Clemens were ever suspended for PED use, why do they remain out of the Hall of Fame? We know the answer: Their legacies are tied to the steroid era, enough to where they if they fail to earn at least five of 16 votes on the contemporary era ballot in 2031, they would be barred from Hall of Fame eligibility barring a rule change.
If Netflix is fine with Barry Bonds, could that help his Hall of Fame chances?
Bonds and Clemens face a clear problem: If the Hall of Fame voters, either the writers or those who vote on the Contemporary Era ballot, believed that the two are worthy of induction, they would have already been inducted. The two legends first appeared on the 2013 ballot and never came close to the 75% needed for election; Bonds peaked at 66% in 2022, his final year on the BBWAA ballot, and Clemens peaked at 65.2% that same year.
So, no, I don’t believe that Netflix giving Bonds a platform to talk baseball will have any impact on his Hall of Fame odds. Why would it? The Miami Marlins naming Bonds their hitting coach in 2016 would have had a greater impact because it was a team willingly embracing the opportunity to put Bonds in uniform … yet, he didn’t even reach 60% until 2020.
Netflix, social media users, and those affiliated with their former teams don’t shy away from bringing proven or alleged PED users back into the picture. If they did, would Rodriguez have appeared at the 2025 World Series or this month’s World Baseball Classic? Would the Brewers have put Braun on their Walk of Fame? Would Major League Baseball have hired Nelson Cruz, another player suspended during the Biogenesis scandal, as a special advisor for topics involving Latin America?
The Hall of Fame will always come up in conversations regarding Bonds, just as it still does for Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Unfortunately for those who believe Bonds deserves a spot in Cooperstown, those conversations will end the same way they have since 2013: Bonds isn’t a Hall of Famer, nor does he appear destined to get in.