Stephen A. Smith has been blasted all week long when he loudly and wrongly claimed that Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese-born Los Angeles Angels superstar, 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.”
After insisting that English isn’t hard to learn, he then added 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.”
Smith has now issued an apology for his offensive remarks about Ohtani and the Nigerian national team.
“I want to start the show today the only way it should start today: with an apology. My sincere apology, that is from me, from the heart. Not from the network, not from anybody else, just me…” Smith said. “What I said about Shohei Ohtani on First Take hurt the Asian community and hurt the Asian-American community. When I spoke about the Nigerian basketball team, on the very same show, I hurt people as well. So it doesn’t matter what my opinion was, or what my intentions were. What matters, is that I messed up.
“I intend to learn and listen to people in those communities to better understand their perspectives… I messed up and I hurt people with my words. For that, I apologize.”
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After playing professional Japanese baseball for several years, Ohtani signed with the Angels in 2017. He was also named American League Rookie of the Year in 2018.
