Is This An Offensive Comment ?

https://youtu.be/IHBsdObZLcg

American sports commentator saying a Japanese baseball player can never be that popular in America if he never learns the language and continues to use an interpreter 

As far as I know, sports fans don't care about what language he/she is speaking, as long as they perform well.

Offensive, well depends on his intention and how someone perceives it. I for one, won't call it offensive, because seems like dude is talking about fan interaction and media interaction, which is important for popularity. But I thing it is an incomplete and stupid logic, because for a sportsperson, their performance is the key, not their communication skills.

He didn’t say what he was trying to say very well and the part about Ohtani being bad for the sport was offensive. Either way in principle he’s right. There are open-minded, inclusive baseball fans but the average American baseball fan is not going to embrace someone like Ohtani where they would embrace Doncic (a foreign basketball star) or a home grown player like James. That may in part be because Doncic is white and Ohtani is Asian but I think it’s also because he’s learned English and gives reporters good sound bytes. And Smith’s bigger point was that major league baseball desperately needs stars that the American public cares about. The average baseball fan is a 57 year old white guy. There are almost no fans under 18 (7% according to linked article). If something doesn’t drastically change the MLB’s audience will die when those 57 year olds do. So he definitely could have said it more kindly but he’s more right than wrong.

https://sportsnaut.com/mlb-ratings-tv-viewership-numbers/

Originally posted by: Nova19

He didn’t say what he was trying to say very well and the part about Ohtani being bad for the sport was offensive. Either way in principle he’s right. There are open-minded, inclusive baseball fans but the average American baseball fan is not going to embrace someone like Ohtani where they would embrace Doncic (a foreign basketball star) or a home grown player like James. That may in part be because Doncic is white and Ohtani is Asian but I think it’s also because he’s learned English and gives reporters good sound bytes. And Smith’s bigger point was that major league baseball desperately needs stars that the American public cares about. The average baseball fan is a 57 year old white guy. There are almost no fans under 18 (7% according to linked article). If something doesn’t drastically change the MLB’s audience will die when those 57 year olds do. So he definitely could have said it more kindly but he’s more right than wrong.

https://sportsnaut.com/mlb-ratings-tv-viewership-numbers/

It's quite curious that while baseball as a sport is slowly dwindling in popularity in the USA, its distant cousin cricket is going as strong and popular as ever. 

Does this have something to do with the cultural difference?

I don't think sports fans care about anything but winning. If a foreign player wins games, even the most xenophobic fans will embrace them irrespective of their race, language, background. Heck Christian conservatives will even cheer a gay or trans athlete if it means their team wins. If a foreign player makes a mistake or loses games, even the self-confessed progressive fans will hurl vile racist abuse. 

So the notion that baseball fans will not embrace Shohei Ontani is false. Another thing to consider that while baseball is fading in the USA it is huge in Japan and Taiwan, as well as their diaspora in the USA. So Ontani appeals to a small but rapidly growing market.  

Originally posted by: return_to_hades

I don't think sports fans care about anything but winning. If a foreign player wins games, even the most xenophobic fans will embrace them irrespective of their race, language, background. Heck Christian conservatives will even cheer a gay or trans athlete if it means their team wins. If a foreign player makes a mistake or loses games, even the self-confessed progressive fans will hurl vile racist abuse. 

So the notion that baseball fans will not embrace Shohei Ontani is false. Another thing to consider that while baseball is fading in the USA it is huge in Japan and Taiwan, as well as their diaspora in the USA. So Ontani appeals to a small but rapidly growing market.  

I understand what you’re saying, it just doesn’t apply. Stephen A was saying American Major League Baseball desperately needs hero figures to regain an American audience and guys like Ohtani are not capable of being them. The fact that the center of baseball has shifted eastward and Ohtani appeals to fans there doesn’t help, in fact, even likely turns Americans off more. I don’t know a thing about fans in the rest of the world, only the US. I am also pretty old and went to high school in a place so small we didn’t have enough boys for a football team. In that high school baseball was much more popular than basketball. That’s how it used to be nation wide but there was a dramatic shift that coincided with basketball developing heroes for a generation of American boys who wanted to be their favorite basketball player. At the same time, the great American past-time started importing Cuban and Dominican Spanish speaking players and former ‘heroes’ turned out to be steroid users and criminals - no one you would want your kid to look up to. Children used to play baseball where I grew up - pick up baseball - that never happens anymore. The only time American kids play baseball is on organized teams - which leaves out the vast majority of American kids. American kids, who don’t even understand all the rules of baseball let alone the intricacies, do not want to be some Japanese guy they don’t understand doing something they can’t appreciate. And that is why Stephen A said what he said. MLB needs Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan and it needs them today or it’s in danger of becoming forgotten in America.

On the other hand, almost every kid (male and female) has played some basketball whether organized or not.  Pick up basketball is everywhere and that is why no one is worried about the NBA. As far as the idea that Americans will embrace any great player no matter how foreign they seem, well I also have lived a sort of “test case” for that. I now live in Dallas and have had Mavericks season tickets for a long time. Dirk Nowitzki was a brilliant German origin basketball player here, a very nice guy, modest, professional, incredibly loyal to the franchise but especially early in his career extremely introverted and bad with the media. I know for a fact that Dallas fans loved winning but did not truly embrace him for years. I was in the arena and witnessed the number of people wearing Nowitzki jerseys versus Nash and Finley in the early years. I’ve personally had the conversations with diehard Mavericks fans who loved how he contributed to winning but thought he acted and played like a European and they did not love him (this changed over many years and he became beloved - I was at his last two home games and they were amazing lovefests). Contrast that with Luca Doncic who is European but acts and plays much more like Americans expect basketball players to act and play (that’s not necessarily a good thing mind you since American players tend to be difficult, abrasive, aggressive and arrogant amongst other things - Doncic is not known as a nice guy). Doncic has been embraced in Dallas from the start in a way Nowitzki definitely was not. Like I said, I don’t know anything about fans outside the US, so maybe we have more of a cult of personality mindset than other places but it takes more than just being a winner or just winning to be truly loved by American fans. Quiet, boring, and brilliant doesn’t get you there. Brash, entertaining, and brilliant might. The first is Ohtani and the second is Doncic. 

Originally posted by: Mahisa_22

It's quite curious that while baseball as a sport is slowly dwindling in popularity in the USA, its distant cousin cricket is going as strong and popular as ever. 

Does this have something to do with the cultural difference?

I think if you don’t already like baseball, it’s really hard to enjoy watching it  😆 especially on TV; I have the same opinion of cricket. People that love it, grew up watching and/or playing. I used to be a baseball fan in high school (I’m female and played a little softball) but I’m not anymore. I think the biggest difference is before basketball became so popular, American kids would go outside and set up a diamond as best as they could and play baseball. We had ghost runners, etc when we didn’t have enough players and made up bases etc. Children actually played baseball. Now they just don’t. Of course there are children’s baseball teams but most kids don’t play on them and nobody goes to their neighbor’s house after school and says “hey want to go to the park and play baseball?”  They do say “hey want to play basketball or throw a football?” I expect Indian kids do still play cricket the way American kids used to play baseball and that is the biggest difference IMO. 

Stephen A Smith is an ass. Does anyone even take him seriously? He could have stated his opinion in a better manner but we can never expect that from him anyways.

I remember, Munenori Kawasaki was popular and well liked during his time with the Toronto Blue Jays so it depends on personality too. Kawaski had that in leaps and bounds. No one cared about his lack of English speaking skills.

Ohtani doesn't have the hyper, excited puppy personality of Kawaski but people like him and are watching baseball for him. He has even brought some people back to the game. Not to forget that he is a tall, good looking guy with a lot of talent. They are watching for his skills and contribution to the game not how he speaks off the diamond. His popularity won't determine his game and teams aren't getting players based on popularity, they get them based on skills and how they play in various circumstances otherwise they wouldn't be going to other countries to find talent.

Originally posted by: Nova19

I understand what you’re saying, it just doesn’t apply. Stephen A was saying American Major League Baseball desperately needs hero figures to regain an American audience and guys like Ohtani are not capable of being them. The fact that the center of baseball has shifted eastward and Ohtani appeals to fans there doesn’t help, in fact, even likely turns Americans off more. I don’t know a thing about fans in the rest of the world, only the US. I am also pretty old and went to high school in a place so small we didn’t have enough boys for a football team. In that high school baseball was much more popular than basketball. That’s how it used to be nation wide but there was a dramatic shift that coincided with basketball developing heroes for a generation of American boys who wanted to be their favorite basketball player. At the same time, the great American past-time started importing Cuban and Dominican Spanish speaking players and former ‘heroes’ turned out to be steroid users and criminals - no one you would want your kid to look up to. Children used to play baseball where I grew up - pick up baseball - that never happens anymore. The only time American kids play baseball is on organized teams - which leaves out the vast majority of American kids. American kids, who don’t even understand all the rules of baseball let alone the intricacies, do not want to be some Japanese guy they don’t understand doing something they can’t appreciate. And that is why Stephen A said what he said. MLB needs Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan and it needs them today or it’s in danger of becoming forgotten in America.

On the other hand, almost every kid (male and female) has played some basketball whether organized or not.  Pick up basketball is everywhere and that is why no one is worried about the NBA. As far as the idea that Americans will embrace any great player no matter how foreign they seem, well I also have lived a sort of “test case” for that. I now live in Dallas and have had Mavericks season tickets for a long time. Dirk Nowitzki was a brilliant German origin basketball player here, a very nice guy, modest, professional, incredibly loyal to the franchise but especially early in his career extremely introverted and bad with the media. I know for a fact that Dallas fans loved winning but did not truly embrace him for years. I was in the arena and witnessed the number of people wearing Nowitzki jerseys versus Nash and Finley in the early years. I’ve personally had the conversations with diehard Mavericks fans who loved how he contributed to winning but thought he acted and played like a European and they did not love him (this changed over many years and he became beloved - I was at his last two home games and they were amazing lovefests). Contrast that with Luca Doncic who is European but acts and plays much more like Americans expect basketball players to act and play (that’s not necessarily a good thing mind you since American players tend to be difficult, abrasive, aggressive and arrogant amongst other things - Doncic is not known as a nice guy). Doncic has been embraced in Dallas from the start in a way Nowitzki definitely was not. Like I said, I don’t know anything about fans outside the US, so maybe we have more of a cult of personality mindset than other places but it takes more than just being a winner or just winning to be truly loved by American fans. Quiet, boring, and brilliant doesn’t get you there. Brash, entertaining, and brilliant might. The first is Ohtani and the second is Doncic. 

I think it still applies. Games and sports evolve. The central heroes of sports change and evolve. Cricket was once a sport for wealthy white elites, and it's now ubiquitous in the subcontinent. 

If you see baseball as a sport static in time as the national pastime. If you want to preserve the white suburban fans and the white athlete spitting sunflower seeds then Ohtani cannot be the face of baseball. 

But if you are willing to accept that it's ok for the fans and the players to evolve, then Ohtani is everything. As I said baseball is popular in the east. There are Asian softball and baseball leagues across the country within the communities. Seeing Ohtani might inspire more Asian Americans to pursue baseball careers, it will bring more Asian American fans to the ballparks. 

If American kids cannot be inspired by talent, if they don't look and act like them, then that's their loss. There was a generation of South Asian and West Indian kids who didn't understand cricket, saw white people playing the game, and embraced the sport. Now you have Australian and English kids who are fans of South Asian players before they understand the game. Simone Biles, Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods didn't have anyone who looked or acted like them in the sports they excelled at. 

I don't follow basketball much, but Tony Parker wasn't very American in his demeanor but the Spurs embraced him. Giannis Antetokounmpo doesn't have the swagger and confidence of a LeBron James but he's beloved too. 

I'll also add being introverted and bad with the media is a separate issue in sports brought t light by Naomi Osaka's withdrawal from Wimbledon. I think sports, in general, has a reckoning to do with fans who won't embrace athletes who are not media savvy. 

You hit the nail on the head when you say American players tend to be difficult, abrasive, and arrogant. For too long American fans have made celebrities out of unsporting players often prodding and pushing players to be abrasive and arrogant. Other countries and cultures have had no problems embracing the quiet, boring, and brilliant. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble - they were all very shy, introverted players. For the longest time Sachin was super awkward in interviews. He was short and had a squeaky voice, but that didn't prevent him from becoming an international legend.  

Its ok for sports to evolve. Indian did evolve to become more brash and abrasive under Kohli. Its ok if baseball evolves to be a more gentleman like sport.