Baseball’s foray into the world of reality TV will begin with... the 2024 Boston Red Sox?
Hey, I guess it’s only natural to want to rubberneck when you witness a wreck…
When the news first broke that Netflix would be profiling this “full throttle” Red Sox team throughout the season in a docuseries airing in 2025, I probably had the same reaction as many of you did: why?
It makes some sense from Netflix’s perspective: one of the most successful sports franchises of the 21st century is in turmoil… and, for some reason, they’ve willfully opening up their doors for your cameras.
Whose bright idea was it within the Red Sox organization to put an even greater spotlight on a team coming off their third last-place finish in four seasons?
“It wasn't necessarily going to be about the Red Sox” Sox chief marketing officer Adam Grossman told MLB.com. “MLB took some time to concept … I think what they landed on was that it would probably be best — given the nature of the grind of a season — to feature one team. Then the question was, what team would do it?”
Fan favorite team president and CEO Sam Kennedy said the move has been in the work for about 18 months. That takes us all the way back in August of 2022, when the Red Sox were (checks standings) in the midst of a 12-16 month on the way to the second of those aforementioned bunch of last-place finishes.
Talk about a major PR faux pas…
“This is one of the largest marketing initiatives we have ever undertaken,” Kennedy said. “I am proud of our players, Alex Cora and our baseball operations leadership for having the courage to embrace such a project and open our clubhouse and Fenway Park to a truly global audience.”
I imagine Kennedy and company at the time figured “Hey, it will only get better by the time this project is ready to get off the ground. It can’t possibly get any worse, right?”
Oops.
Yet before a final green light was to be given, the project required team-wide approval — players, coaches and executives all had to buy in. A surprising voice within the clubhouse stepped up to champion the project: Nick Pivetta.
“I think fans all over the world will gain a new appreciation for the grind of a baseball season, and people who aren’t already fans will gain new respect for the sport," Pivetta said. "I’m looking forward to being a part of the experience with my teammates and the entire organization.”
Can it really be the same Nick Pivetta who blocks me and other media members on Twitter — I once had the gall to suggest he pitch faster in the pre-pitch clock era — who is leading the charge for even more media attention?
Nick Pivetta and Raquel Ferreira were both instrumental in obtaining the necessary buy-in from the players to make a project like this Netflix docuseries possible, Red Sox CMO Adam Grossman told myself and @bradfo.
— Boston Sports Gordo (@BOSSportsGordo) February 7, 2024
🔈 https://t.co/3HnSXaKmTl pic.twitter.com/YUQ1giceGj
Now, had the Sox actually followed through with Tom Werner’s ill-advised offseason promise, the timing would have been perfect. Imagine if a newly-acquired Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto or Yoshinobu Yamamoto were riding in on a white horse to save the Red Sox and return them to the top of the baseball mountain? Or even if Mookie Betts or Xander Bogaerts were still here?
Now *that* could’ve been binge-worthy stuff…
Instead, we’ll be getting a behind-the-scenes look at the likes of Lucas Giolito, Vaughn Grissom and Cooper Criswell. Fans are already disinterested in shelling out a ridiculous $30 a month to stream games on NESN. Does the team actually think fans are clamoring for more Red Sox content right now?
Do you think John Henry, Werner and Kennedy will all be password sharing a single Netflix account to watch the show? I can’t imagine they’d all spring for their own Netflix subscriptions. It’s expensive to have baseball players, after all…
But there are some positives to this Netflix arrangement. It will give us the chance to get to know our beloved nine on deeper level. Some will embrace the added attention — I think first and foremost of Triston Casas, who has seemingly completed his transformation from shy rookie to confident leader. Maybe Pivetta is ready to turn a new leaf, too.
Then there’s Rafael Devers and Brayan Bello, the face and potential future face of the team who are not native English speakers, and Masataka Yoshida. Having dedicated cameras capturing their personalities and quirks will offer all a chance to get to know them better in ways we’ve been unable to in casual pregame and postgame settings.
On a larger scale, giving nearly 300 million Netflix subscribers the chance to get to know often under-marketed stars of baseball is a good way to help grow the game. I think of people like my fiancé, who herself is not a sports fan — yet even she wanted to watch and enjoyed the “Quarterback” series on Netflix. Human interest stories sell to broad audiences.
And we’ll also get to relive the Red Sox’s magical 2004 season in an accompanying 20th-anniversary special. We can never get enough of “The Idiots” around these parts, right?
Yet what could have been a unique celebration of two incredible decades of Red Sox baseball and the outset of another instead feels more like a team in the NFL being punished by having to appear on Hard Knocks...
Gethin Coolbaugh is a columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.