Stephen A. Smith says so much stuff over the years, you sorta forget about how much controversy truly comes out of his mouth. Last year, the ESPN personality was forced to apologize after he faced backlash for comments he made regarding Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani on ESPN’s First Take.
Smith made last summer about the Los Angeles Angels star not speaking English.
“This brother is special, make no mistake about it,” Smith said. “But the fact that you’ve got a foreign player that doesn’t speak English, that needs an interpreter—believe it or not, I think contributes to harming the game to some degree, when that’s your box office appeal. It needs to be somebody like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, those guys.
“I understand that baseball is an international sport itself in terms of participation. 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 that you can understand what the hell he’s saying in this country.”
Speaking to Daniel Riley of GQ in Japanese, Ohtani explained he “would speak English” if he could:
“Of course I would want to. Obviously it wouldn’t hurt to be able to speak English. There would only be positive things to come from that. But I came here to play baseball, at the end of the day, and I’ve felt like my play on the field could be my way of communicating with the people, with the fans. That’s all I really took from that in the end.”
Ohtani also became the first player in MLB history to make the All-Star team as a position player and pitcher. He was voted as a starter at designated hitter and was named to the squad as a pitcher.
The 27-year-old also participated in the Home Run Derby and was just all-around special last year.
Ohtani was the unanimous choice for AL MVP in 2021. He hit .257/.372/.592 with 46 homers, 26 stolen bases and 100 RBI as a hitter and posted a 3.18 ERA with 156 strikeouts in 130.1 innings as a pitcher.
