Netflix will soon air its third MLB event of the year, the Field of Dreams game, and hopes to involve Hollywood star Kevin Costner in the telecast.
Elle Duncan, who joined Netflix as a host in December 2025, broke the news during an interview with Front Office Sports.
“Netflix always makes a really compelling pitch,” Duncan said. “So I’m certainly hoping that he’ll want to be a part of it in some kind of way. Because he is the face of the Field of Dreams and I know he’s still a really big baseball fan. So hopefully we can get him.”
Costner was part of Fox Sports’ coverage of the inaugural Field of Dreams game in 2021. He came out of the cornfield and also narrated the pregame.
Kevin Costner emerges from the corn. #FieldOfDreamsGame
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— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 12, 2021
Netflix agreed to a three-year deal with Major League Baseball prior to the start of the season, which includes the rights to three MLB events per year. The Field of Dreams game will be Netflix’s third MLB event of the year, after the New York Yankees–San Francisco Giants game on Opening Night and the Home Run Derby in July. The Field of Dreams game will be played on August 13, 2026.
The Opening Night broadcast leaned heavily into celebrity appearances, a decision that drew criticism from some viewers. During the pregame, John Cena walked fans through the new ABS system, comedian Bert Kreischer was shirtless, and WWE wrestler Jey Uso promoted Monday Night Raw.
The problem, as described by Awful Announcing’s Sam Neumann in his review of the broadcast, is that these celebrities did not add anything to the game. Rather, they often distracted from the game itself.
“Netflix treated the hour before first pitch less like a baseball broadcast and more like a very expensive promotional vehicle for its own content library,” Neumann noted.
Obviously, Costner has a much more direct connection to the Field of Dreams than the celebrities during the Opening Night game, but that doesn’t mean that Netflix can’t still make the same mistakes by not using Costner in the right way. Fans likely won’t tune in to watch him sit on the pregame desk, but they might if he plays a similar role to 2021.
With such a short schedule, Netflix has few opportunities to prove to baseball fans that it understands what they want from its broadcasts. It may have gotten off on the wrong foot on Opening Day, but the streaming service still has time to redeem itself.
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