Stephen A. Smith doesn’t think people are gravitating towards the TV to watch Shohei Ohtani play, because he speaks to the media through an interpreter.
I am living proof that he is wrong. In fact, millions of Red Sox fans are. The Red Sox wrapped up a three-game series against the Angels last week, and Ohtani’s excellence was the primary reason to watch into the wee hours of the morning (or late into Wednesday afternoon, but you get my point).
He shut down the Red Sox through seven innings one night, and them came back and hit a go-ahead, 433-foot blast the very next afternoon. Ohtani’s language of origin doesn’t matter. His play speaks for itself.
“We should make a new award for him,” Alex Cora told reporters last week. “For the hitters, he's just a different breed. He's something different. This is something MLB hasn't seen since Babe Ruth.”
J.D. Martinez compared Ohtani to Ruth as well. The former will be the starting pitcher and lead-off batter for the American League in the All-Star Game Tuesday (Ohtani said Monday he wasn’t alive to see Ruth play, which is a funny line regardless of how it’s developed).
Smith’s xenophobic rant was centered around how MLB would be better off with English-speaking stars such as Mike Trout and Bryce Harper serving as the faces of the game. But here’s the problem with that: I don’t remember a single thing Mike Trout has ever done against the Red Sox. He might be the greatest baseball player ever, but yet there’s no buzz surrounding him.
When Ohtani came to Fenway Park earlier this season, it was an event, even though Covid restrictions limited the crowd size. And he didn’t disappoint. Ohtani blasted a two-out, two-run homer in the series finale to lift the Angels past the Red Sox.
Ohtani lights up our Twitter feeds every morning, and he’ll light up the All-Star Game in Denver. Red Sox fans have already seen his excellence first-hand, and nobody turned off the TV due to how he answers questions in postgame Zoom press conferences.
