Shohei Ohtani Reveals True Feelings On Stephen A. Smith’s Criticism

Back in July, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith went on a rant about why he doesn’t believe Shohei Ohtani can be the face of the MLB. His criticism of Ohtani was ridiculous to say the least.

“This brother is special, make no mistake about it,” Smith said. “But the fact that you’ve 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. It needs to be somebody like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, those guys.

“I understand that baseball is an international sport itself in terms of participation. 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 that you can understand what the hell he’s saying in this country.”

Ohtani, who was recently named The Associated Press’ Male Athlete of the Year, has finally responded to Smith’s criticism.

In a feature interview with GQ, Ohtani said that he came to America to play baseball. He would be more than happy to speak English, but it’s a process.

“I mean, if I could speak English, I would speak English,” Ohtani said, via GQ. “Of course I would want to. Obviously it wouldn’t hurt to be able to speak English. There would only be positive things to come from that. But I came here to play baseball, at the end of the day, and I’ve felt like my play on the field could be my way of communicating with the people, with the fans. That’s all I really took from that in the end.”

That’s a classy response from Ohtani.

Smith ultimately apologized for his remarks on ESPN’s First Take, but fans probably won’t forget about it.

Ohtani, meanwhile, will continue to show the baseball world that he’s a one-of-a-kind athlete.

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