Shohei Ohtani is the biggest draw in Major League Baseball since coming to America and overshadowing Babe Ruth as the first player since the Babe to both dominate as a hitter (33 home runs) and as a pitcher (4-1 record).

In town this week with the LA Angels, would Ohtani turn the Coliseum into Ohkland?

The myth was on display on July 19. When Ohtani pitched, the A’s were mastered and struck out eight times. When Ohtani hit, he doubled and would have given the Angels a lead were it not for a great defensive relay by the A’s.  It was scoreless in the seventh inning when Ohtani was done pitching and went to play right field. That’s when the A’s beat up on his sub and went on to win the game, 4-1.

Anything to suggest Ohtani couldn’t be MLB’s marquee player? Of course not. He’s a smiling, charming gigantic Asian presence who is the best thing in baseball.

And that’s why ESPN/Disney’s Stephen A. Smith’s remarks about Ohtani last week were so offensive.

ESPN pays Stephen A. $12 million a year to be controversial. But that doesn’t mean racist and xenophobic. On the July 12 “First Take” show, Smith said this about Ohtani:

“But the fact that you have a foreign player who 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, and unfortunately, at this moment in time, that’s not the case.”

That paragraph is couched in criticism of MLB’s marketing, but that’s no excuse for racism. We’ve got to break down what is just one big rolling snowball of hate.

A Black man calling Ohtani a foreigner is worse than racist. It’s xenophobic, against anyone not of this country. Asian Americans are always confused as being Asian nationals.  Hence, going after Ohtani’s for being “foreign” is an attack on anyone of Asian ancestry, as well as anyone from another country.

Rest assured, the scapegoating hatemongers who have attacked and harassed Asians and Asian Americans more than 7,000 times during the pandemic didn’t ask for green cards.

But Smith then goes after Ohtani’s lack of English skills and the need for an interpreter. That’s similar to political conservatives advocating English-only policies in America. Is Smith saying American sports—and America’s pastime, baseball–should be English-only?

Smith is in Tucker Carlson/Fox News territory.

Smith uses national origin, and language to “other” Ohtani, then concludes that being Asian “contributes to harming the game to some degree when that’s your box office appeal.”

But he’s really saying a yellow face is not a good face for MLB, not even a yellow face with 33 home runs and a 4-1 pitching record.

So, who should be the face of baseball? The African American Smith says it should be “Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, those guys…”

Oh, the white guys. THE WHITE GUYS?

It’s astonishing to hear that coming from a Black man in sports, who should know all about the segregation of the Negro Leagues from baseball.  Now he’s saying MLB IS a white man’s game?

Jackie Robinson is rolling in his grave.

Smith has apologized on Twitter and on the air. But there’s not enough sugar to fill the hole he’s dug.

ESPN must weigh in on their $12 million man. It has already suffered on the race front in recent weeks when Rachel Nichols, a white show host, was caught criticizing ESPN’s diversity record as the excuse for hiring a Black colleague.

Now they have the xenophobic and ignorant Smith.

And that brings us to Al Campanis, who has a special place in the American Racism Hall of Shame. It was Campanis, an executive of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who appeared on ABC’s “Nightline” with Ted Koppel in 1987. Campanis told Koppel that Blacks “may not have some of the necessities to be a field manager or general manager in baseball.”

For that racist comment, Campanis lost his career.

But he also made other stereotypical remarks about Blacks as “gifted” athletes, except for swimming, “because they don’t have buoyancy.”

Smith may have buoyancy if he survives his xenophobic Ohtani comments.

But is there any doubt Smith deserves to be the Al Campanis of 2021?

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist and commentator. He vlogs at www.amok.com. Twitter @emilamok. Facebook @emilguillermo.media

Isabelle Price

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