Attention.
The thing is, whatever languages he does or doesn’t speak
Good point. I just talked to my MIL in Japan, and she watched last night’s Home Run Derby there. I’m betting a lot of folks there tuned in.
Soccer leagues have had stars who don’t speak the national language a really, nobody cares. In fact, it is sometimes endearing when they mangle a simple phrase.
Stephen A made a raist remark (he would’ve had a stroke if someone had said of an African-American “Most Americans have trouble understanding his inner-city vernacular, he’s not an ideal image for the League”) and also doubly ignorant because that exact same thing happen in sports Leagues accross the world where ALSO nobody cares.
The sports world is littered with trolls. They drive up engagement. It is perhaps me least favorite aspect of sports. I don’t watch sports opinion shows and rarely listen to sports radio. Over time I’ve accumulated a list of writers who don’t do this stupid stuff.
On a side note, I’ll defend Barkley. He occasionally says silly/dumb things but I never get the feeling that he’s doing it with ulterior motives. When someone talks that much off the cuff they will sometimes say something stupid.
Very much so. There’s a baseball fandom and culture there that’s nearly as strong as American baseball fandom and culture.
Years ago, when my baseball-loving father was still working and healthy, I took a trip to Japan (not related to baseball – working trip). I came back with a bunch of caps from Japanese teams as a gift for my father.
He loved them, and delighted in wearing them to Shea Stadium and confusing people in the stands prepared to hurl abuse at someone wearing the cap of a hated rival. I went with him to a few games over the years – you could see people look at the hat, get read to say something, and then get confused.
Also, haven’t there been about a zillion players in the major leagues with weak or non-existent English? Seems like half the players come from Venezuela or the Dominican Republic. And nobody cared. But apparently a Japanese player is a bridge too far.
I don’t get it.
+1
Yes, they say stupid stuff, but they are funny and good natured. I’ll take those two any day of the week.
Rafael Devers is in his fifth year with the Red Sox and I still see references to him using a translator with the media (though he has learned some English and reportedly uses it to curse at himself in the batter’s box). I doubt many Sox fans care about his less than overwhelming command of the language, just that he’s a really good player.
Ohtani would probably pick up a few extra fans if he at least used some English phrases*, but he seems to be doing quite well in popularity regardless.
*Japanese baseball fans have appreciated attempts by American players/managers to speak Japanese, though I don’t recall hearing about any that are fluent.
And, of course, they have infinitely more intelligent things to say about the game.
I heard a little of this when Ichiro came to Seattle. MVP, Rookie of the Year, part of 116 win season, and record number of hits in a season. But, he used a translator.
Of course, Ichiro DID speak English; he was famous for his astoundingly profane speeches to his teammates prior to All Star games. He just felt more comfortable with a translator in press interactions.
And Ichiro, despite only speaking English to teammates and coaches, was an absolute sensation with the fans. Mariners fans adored him. He could be elected governor of the State of Washington. The fans voted him into one All Star game after another and still talk about him. He will of course end up in the Hall of Fame.
I’m a Blue Jays fan. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is uncomfortable speaking English to the media and sometimes uses an interpreter, though honestly I find him pretty easy to understand, but whatever. Nonetheless, he’s a sensation here, because - you might want to sit down for this amazing revelation - baseball fans are more interested in his awesome hitting skills than his oratory. As it turns out the fact he’s leading the league in batting average, RBIs, and a bunch of other things makes people want to watch him play baseball. There’s like 50 examples of players who haven’t spoken fabulous English but are beloved by fans.
Well, he just tweeted an apparently sincere apology, so I have to give him more credit than many others who have made similar statements.
The problem for Smith is that he’s so over-exposed, and has to come up with entertaining content so frequently, that he’s bound to trip himself up once in a while. I don’t believe that he’s a racist, but needs to generate his own controversies, and thus crosses the line occasionally.
Yo la tengo!
Incidentally, I just spend maybe 15 seconds googling it and, indeed, Ohtani is working hard on his English. You’d think Smith would be able to use Google.
I’ve seen numerous interviews with foreign athletes where their interpreter doesn’t translate the English question, but they answer in their native language and let the interpreter translate that into English. IOW they understand English just fine, but aren’t 100% confident that they can express themselves the way they want to.
To me that’s a high degree of professionalism that should be appreciated, not scorned.
I’m a sports fan but most of the press conferences and interviews with athletes are dull and full of cliches. Frankly it wouldn’t bother me at all if athletes couldn’t speak any English at all. If they can play well and entertain that’s good enough. That’s what their job is after all.
Well, you’re posting in this thread about it. And thousands of others are having similar online discussions about it.
That’s the point.
For all the comparisons, Smith actually is better than Bayless, as in when he’s not deliberately playing a troll he does seem to actually care about issues and players and will genuinely apologize, which I can’t say at all about Bayless.
This time, he accurately judged he would get a big reaction and did and that’s where the money is. He knows there are plenty of non-native English speakers in MLB (and in basketball and in other sports) but none of them are the current big name in their sports like Ohtani is and don’t offer a hot take that will be debated by millions of people.
He inaccurately thought he was only dipping a toe over the line when he in fact dove right over it head first. A lot of that has to do with how Americans think about and act towards Asians and how that’s changed in the last few years and especially this last year (but hasn’t quite gotten caught up to everybody), and I hope he does reflect on that more. As an Asian-American, it’s still a little more surprising to me that people are sticking up for Ohtani as much as they are. 20 or 30 years ago, this wouldn’t even be a hot take - it would just have been taken for granted as a reasonable take.
So the entities to be pitted should be the shows and networks who promote this kind of garbage, more than the paid spokes-trolls.
Heck, it should be us (general society, not necessarily us in the thread). If we didn’t read/watch/react, there’d be no profit motive.
We love manufactured controversies and the corresponding outrage (whether real or also manufactured). I’m not going to wholly (only partially) blame those who take advantage of the devils of our worst impulses.
Absolutely adored him. (As did Japan, of course, who also became M’s fans for a few of those years). AllStar game participation was non-embarrassing for a while.
The list of things an major leaguer must do, as I remember are run, throw, catch, hit, and hit with power - all of which he (Ohtani) does ridiculously well. Nothing in there about stupid press interviews.
Why not both?