It was just last week when ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith dipped his toes in baseball talk and churned out a take about Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani which is now considered as one of the worst of the year.
To rewind, Smith showed his frustration over the decline of baseball’s popularity in America that he felt was soundly exemplified by the fact that one of the game’s best players today “needs an interpreter.” Of course, he was talking about the Angels' Japanese star. As expected, Smith got inundated with backlash from social and mainstream media — and even from his colleagues, including Jeff Passan, who jumped off the top rope and put on a lecture for Smith in a recent appearance on First Take.
@JeffPassan went on to Stephen A Smith’s show and absolutely put the hammer down. Full video here: https://t.co/MGWpCedI10 #StephenASmith #ShoheiOhtani pic.twitter.com/AkXpoMeAWh
— Michael Garaffa (@MichaelGaraffa) July 13, 2021
But that’s not all.
A story published on ESPN by Dan Hajducky took out any remaining legs — if there’s any left at all — from Smith’s argument, as it showed just how valuable to MLB the Angels' pitcher/hitter has become.
Ohtani accounted for 28 percent of all 2021 All-Star Game merchandise sales. Fanatics started selling Ohtani memorabilia last week; not only did the 2018 AL Rookie of the Year quickly become baseball's No. 1 athlete on the site, but his sales outrank the No. 2 MLB player 10 times over.
Just for good measure, Passan also tweeted a portion of that feature along with a sarcastic caption. So much for mocking the Angels' All-Star.
sHoHeI OhTaNi cAn't bE ThE FaCe oF BaSeBaLl: https://t.co/xLgMUgwOYB pic.twitter.com/eWzOIfCiHK
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 20, 2021
Shohei Ohtani is a gift that keeps on giving and baseball fans should only be grateful that they are witnessing a generational talent put on a show on an almost nightly basis for the Angels.
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