The first group of Hall of Famers step through the corn and onto the field: L to R—Bert Blyleven (RHP), Joe Mauer (C), Paul Molitor (DH/3B), Andruw Jones (CF), Mike Schmidt (3B), Steve Carlton (LHP), Harold Baines (DH/OF).

Twenty-six Hall of Famers stepped through the corn to stroll down the field, all but two of whom wore the uniform of the team they represented on their Cooperstown plaques but two. Tony La Russa and Fred McGriff have blank hats on their plaque heads. McGriff wore a Braves jersey; La Russa wore the Hall of Fame jersey presented him upon his election.

Perhaps appropriately for the evening’s contest between the Phillies (declared the visiting team, wearing throwback-to-the-1930s road uniforms) and the Twins (declared the home team, wearing their new-to-Minnesota 1961 uniforms), two of those Hall of Famers played for each team during their careers: lefthanded pitcher Jim Kaat and first baseman/designated hitter Jim Thome.

The pregame tribute to those twenty-six at Thursday’s Field of Dreams Game (and, yes, we noticed Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven circling around his head when he sensed a camera closeup was upon him) was moving. So was Barry Bonds’s pregame commentary that he wished his late baseball playing/coaching father, Bobby, could walk through the corn for a catch. You might lose count of those in the dugouts, on the field, in the stands, who share the same wish.

The Netflix broadcast of the game itself, however, was . . . well, take your pick. Annoying? Cringe? Distracting? Almost interfering with plays on the field? All the above?

You get that the Field of Dreams Game isn’t your ordinary regular season game. Like the storyline of the film for which it’s named (and on whose lands it’s played), it has soul-deep connotations for players, managers, fans alike above and beyond the game’s natural such connotations. But there’s a right and wrong way to do it.

You guessed it: Blyleven couldn’t resist circling when the camera panned him up front and close.

Matt Vasgersian did a very credible play-by-play. Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia and longtime popular outfielder Hunter Pence showed their promise as broadcast analysts. But they forgot often enough about the value of silence, of letting the play speak for itself. And, at least twice, the in-game player interviews got in the way of those players having to try, you know, making plays.

Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber did Kyle Schwarber stuff right out of the chute, when he opened the game hitting the third pitch from Minnesota’s Taj Bradley against the wind blowing in and into the right field corn. The Phillies scored another in the inning when Bryson Stott—with the Twins pulling the infield in with first and third (Bryce Harper, walk; Luis Arraez, base hit)—hit a high liner into the gap in left center field to score Harper.

The Schwarbinator did Schwarbinator stuff Thursday evening, of course, starting with this corn crunch in the top of the first . . .

But in the bottom of the second, the Netflix team had Phillies left fielder Brandon Marsh on the hookup to chit-chat with one out and Twins right fielder Luke Keaschall at the plate. Yakety-yak, chitter-chat—oops! Gotta bounce, guys.

Marsh had to zip it on a dime to run back to the fence in front of the left field corn, where Keaschall’s loft cleared it by a hair, or at least a small husk, cutting the Phillie lead to 2-1. You couldn’t help wondering if Marsh might have leaped and yanked it back for a home run theft if he hadn’t been blabbering with the boys in the loft.

Circle shows the ball falling just behind the corn fence. Marsh might have had it with a well-timed leap if he hadn’t been engaged in chitchat by the Netflix broadcast crew during the inning.

Opening the fourth, Marsh began atonement by walking on a full count. Then, he hit the jets for second. He looked like a dead pigeon at first. The Phillies challenged. A television replay showed him using a clever swimmer-like move to elude the tag and hit the pad safely. No surprise: the Phillies won the challenge.

After Marsh took third on a Justin Crawford infield out, the Schwarbinator did another Schwarbinator thing, hitting another long ball to right onto which Keaschall actually got his glove long enough for the ball to glance off the end and into the corn. Then Trea Turner doubled, Harper sent him home with a base hit right through diving Twins second baseman Kody Clemens, Arraez nailed an opposite-field single, but Stott flied out to left.

You guessed it: Clemens’s old man, longtime pitcher Roger, was up in the booth while sonny boy was on the line with the team. A little friendly father-and-son banter with and around the crew. Oops! Clemens had to cut it even shorter than Marsh, when Harper swung and shot the ball up the pipe. Thanks to Clemens’s live mike as he dove and landed right on top of it while the ball shot under him, it sounded rather like one of the heavy desert stones landing flat upon Wile E. Coyote after springing yet another defective Acme trap.

At least, whenever Fox Sports miked players and managers up during postseason games, they had the courtesy and the brains to keep those interviews to those in the dugout, not on the field. Say what you will about Hall of Fame broadcaster Joe Buck, but he never kept Johnny Damon on the line in center field at all, never mind long enough before Damon had to go gotta bounce to try robbing Derek Jeter of an extra base hit.

Marsh atoned further for his interview-disrupted non-homer theft when he squared up Twins reliever Travis Adams in the seventh and sent a two-run shot into the right field corn. That proved the last of the scoring, the Phillies winning 7-1. with Aaron Nola going five strong and four Phillies relievers keeping the Twins funeral service-quiet.

Well, Netflix’s people have time yet to continue working out the bugs. Their next baseball broadcast under their three-year deal won’t come until next Opening Day.