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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2021 0:37:00 GMT
Stephen A. Smith, commentator on ESPN's "First Take" and king of opinions you wish you hadn't heard, is walking back his worst opinion yet.
In a rant on "First Take" Monday, Smith loudly claimed that Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese-born Los Angeles Angels superstar who is the first legitimate two-way player since Babe Ruth, can't be the face of baseball because he needs an interpreter.
“But when you talk about an audience gravitating to the tube or to the ballpark to actually watch you, I don’t think it helps that the number one face is a dude that needs an interpreter so you can understand what the hell he’s saying.”
Before you point out that some of baseball's brightest and most talented stars — Fernando Tatis Jr., Ronald Acuna Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., — don't speak English as their first language, Smith had more to say (or yell) on the topic.
Smith claims that if Bryce Harper was doing what Ohtani is doing, "we might be talking about baseball five days a week." After insisting that English isn't hard to learn (which is not true), he says that he hasn't watched a single Angels game all season, but "when Barry Bonds was smacking home runs, or Mark McGwire, I was transfixed on the tube."
The full segment is currently available on Youtube. View at your own risk.
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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2021 5:53:45 GMT
ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith has issued an apology and admitted he "screwed up" with his comments earlier in the day about Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani and his impact on the popularity of Major League Baseball. "As an African-American, keenly aware of the damage stereotyping has done to many in this country, it should have elevated my sensitivities even more," Smith wrote in a statement posted to social media. "Based on my words, I failed in that regard and it's on me and me alone! Ohtani is one of the brightest stars in all of sports. He is making a difference, as it pertains to inclusiveness and leadership. I should have embraced that in my comments. Instead, I screwed up." On ESPN's "First Take" program Monday morning, Smith said that baseball's home run leader not speaking English presents a problem for MLB from a marketing standpoint. "I don't think it helps that the No. 1 face is a dude that needs an interpreter so you can understand what the hell he's saying," he said. ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith is no stranger to controversial comments. After a storm of criticism, Smith tried to clarify his remarks in a two-minute video, saying he was trying to make a larger point about an issue that all sports face. "In the United States, all I was saying is that, when you're a superstar, if you could speak the English language, guess what, that's going to make it that much easier (and) less challenging to promote the sport," Smith said.
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