ESPN’s Jeff Passan rebukes Stephen A. Smith on ‘First Take’ for Shohei Ohtani comment
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is used to causing a stir, but he apologized Tuesday for his comments about Los Angeles star Shohei Ohtani.
During Monday’s “First Take,” Smith argued that Ohtani’s rise to being the best player in Major League Baseball was bad for the sport.
“The fact that you got a foreign player that doesn’t speak English, that needs an interpreter, believe it or not, I think contributes to harming the game to some degree, when that’s your box-office appeal,” Smith said. “It needs to be somebody like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, those guys and unfortunately at this time, that’s not the case.”
Smith later said: “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 No. 1 face is a dude that needs an interpreter so you can understand what the hell he’s saying in this country.”
Those words drew a scolding from another ESPN employee.
Major League Baseball reporter Jeff Passan visited “First Take” and took Smith to task.
“Shohei Ohtani came to this country at 23 years old,” Passan said. “He left behind his family. He left behind his culture. He left behind his country. He left behind everything he knows to go and pursue the American dream. He wanted to come here and be great. And he is the sort of person who this show and who this network and who this country should embrace. We are not the ones who should be trafficking in ignorance.”
Passan said that after Smith apologized for what Monday’s comments.
Here is Passan’s rebuke of Smith, and Smith’s apology:
