Social Media Blasts ESPN's Stephen A. Smith for Xenophobic Comments About Angels' Shohei Ohtani
07/14/2021 02:24 am EDT
Arash Markazi added: "This wasn't an off the cuff comment. The prepared chyron is cringeworthy too. Why the hell would it be bad for Shoehi Ohtani to be the No. 1 attraction? He's a generational talent doing things we haven't seen since Babe Ruth. Why, because he's Japanese and learning English?"
One fan wrote: "I don't necessarily think it matters if he can speak English. People know the name and any baseball fan respects game when they see it regardless of where they're from. If he wants/needs a translator then he can have one.
"Roberto Clemente and so many other players over the years have heard that same diatribe of hate and xenophobia," one Twitter user stated.
Keith Olberman added: "I mean, imagine something even vaguely like this, said about any black athlete or female athlete or even an athlete who doesn't speak to the media, by anybody else. The commentator would have been fired by now."
One fan wrote: "Bro that's wild man baseball is so well diverse you get Dominican Republicans Puerto Ricans Americans Mexicans and a lot of Asian players so for him to say this is really wild lol like as long people watch who cares what nationality he is lol."
"I'd like to see an ancestral background investigation where he found out his ancestors were from Nigeria! With 12% Asian heritage!" another fan revealed.
"WRONG! MLB doesn't have to ingratiate itself on American fans!" one person tweeted. "They don't have to whitewash baseball from a marketing standpoint to make it more palatable! WTF kind of racist talk is that? Baseball fans can handle a foreign player using an interpreter."
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