Why We Don't Talk About Shohei Ohtani Enough

Shohei Ohtani is the best baseball player right now, arguably the greatest of all time, and his next contract could be worth up to a billion dollars, David, but he's still not a household name. Let's talk about it. Yeah, we gotta talk about some viral sports questions right now, because I went on the MLB Reddit, baseball Reddit, some of the Asian Reddits, and people were asking the question, if Shohei Ohtani's potentially the most talented baseball player of all time, because he's a great hitter and a great pitcher, the likes of, you know, which have not been seen since Babe Ruth, how come it seems like the American fan base or American, you know, endorsement brands don't care? Yeah, when is there gonna be a candy bar named the Ohtani Bar? Right, because they got a Babe Ruth bar, right? Well, you know, I don't know if that time has passed, but anyways, guys, we're gonna get into the comments section. We're gonna talk about eight reasons why Shohei Ohtani is not a household name, despite being the best player of a major American sports, guys. Please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hot Paw Boys as we get into this. I did notice, Andrew, on the Asian subreddits, they tend to more focus on the fact that he's Asian. He is from a foreign market where he is a superstar in Japan, right? But obviously, what's big in Japan does not necessarily cross over to America, and likewise, there is a disconnect. Even though Japan is Westernized, they are not Western people, but other people on the MLB and baseball boards, they were more like, no, no, no, it's not just because he's Asian. It's just because the angels stink. That's the only reason why they're just not a good team. Yeah, guys, we're gonna go through the reason, but real quick, I do think it's important to note the MLB demographic, guys. The fan base is that the MLB is actually about 60% white, okay, it's 50% male, and I don't know if this matters, guys, but the political affiliation, the main political affiliation is Republican, so I don't know if that contributes to maybe Shohei not being as big of a star as he's supposed to be, but there's probably- What are you trying to say? What are you trying to say, Doc? Guys, I'm not all blaming it. I am not blaming it just on the Caucasian male. There's a lot of other factors to consider here, guys. So before Asians, you start getting mad at these people, just listen to the video, all right? So make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications. Andrew, we are not subject matter experts on baseball, right, but we are subject matter experts on Asian representation in the West and just sports marketing in general, right? I mean, maybe not experts like I work at a sports agency firm, but just for a regular person, I know a thing or two. We think about a lot of things, guys, so I would say, I'm gonna go through the reasons real quick and we can talk about it. I think number one, obviously, he has a Japanese name. Even though it's not the hardest name to say, it's just harder to remember for American people. Number two, he is from Asia, so he doesn't really relate to the American experience or even the Asian American experience. He's not out there drinking boba and all this other stuff. Boba's big in Japan right now, though, so I'm sure he's had it. Dude, he needs to go on Subtle Asian Trades and pull a Seamoon and start drinking some taro milk tea. But I think the truth is, he has his own world that he's like a tier one superstar in. It's a little bit like Jokic. Jokic doesn't have his own sneaker. He should've been a three-time MVP, right? And we're just talking about Joker, but he's like a tier one celebrity in Serbia. Right, right, like even in maybe the Euro League period, he's just a tier one superstar. Also, okay, number three, let's be honest, Shohei Otani, he doesn't choose to speak English very often. I heard that he does speak English casually. He definitely can. He also learned a little bit of Spanish, but of course, he doesn't give a lot of interviews and he does not speak a lot of English, therefore, it doesn't make him very relatable when he does that, right? People don't get to know him and things like that. Yeah, I almost wanna say, though, that that's partially a factor, but I almost wanna say maybe even Ichiro was a bigger deal than Shohei, even though Shohei is, in a way, better than Ichiro. Oh, you mean Ichiro Suzuki being like, he was bigger at his time? Possibly, yeah, I think it's arguable. Guys, he's also on the Anaheim Angels, which is a small market team that sucks. So, David, this is kinda weird. This is kinda like, I guess, if Giannis Anadokoumpou was on the Knicks instead of the Milwaukee Bucks, he would also be viewed differently, too. Yeah, I think the Anaheim Angels are a local fan base. There's nobody who's a fan of the Angels outside of that locality, right? It's like one of those type of teams. If he was on the Dodgers or Yankees, oh, the Yankees, my goodness! Yeah, I think it would improve, but it wouldn't still be what it is, because a lot of people were saying that the age of baseball superstars is over, because the Angels, I believe, Andrew, who do they have, Mike Trout? So Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, and Shohei are gonna be the top three highest-paid players in baseball. The Angels have two of them, but how many people would recognize Mike Trout outside, either? Oh, that's a good point, yeah. Maybe it's not only because Shohei is Asian, guys. Obviously, Shohei has not really done anything viral or TMZ-worthy, hasn't dated Madonna, like, what was it, Derrick Jeter or Alex Rodriguez did? No, no, no, Dennis Rodman did that. No, one of the players, didn't Derrick Jeter go out, Derrick Jeter went out with somebody famous, I forgot. Derrick Jeter dated like 10 celebrities. Jennifer Lopez, right, yeah, a bunch of people. Anyways, why'd I say Madonna, gosh? But anyways, another reason is baseball is dying, David. This is a huge conversation right now about how weekly baseball is less watched or people seem to care about it less, but worldwide baseball games, like the big games, are still watched a lot. I actually think, for me, just a quick thought, that's my number one. I think everything is a factor pie and there's a lot of different slices. I think baseball dying, it's almost like the biggest slice to me. I'm not saying it's not big in Latin American countries. I'm not saying it's not big in Japan and amongst older corporate white guys, but it's like, I feel like Latin America, they would more so follow the players from their countries. Yeah, let's just say a lot of Gen Z, millennials, not as much into baseball. Also, in baseball, there is actually a history of a lot of great Asian players, so I guess it's not that shocking to see a great Asian player. We have Ichiro Hideo Nomo, you have Shin Suchu, Yu Darvish, right? Maybe they're not as great as each other, as Ichiro and as Shohei, but essentially, these are very good Asian players, so it's not weird to see an Asian be really good at baseball, I guess. It's not as shocking. Yeah, shout out to Matsui. I remember growing up in Seattle, there were so many actually Japanese players on the Mariners, because at one point, the Mariners were owned by Nintendo, Japanese company. Oh, and then last but not least, I actually just thinking, maybe this goes along with baseball dying, but there's not that many big household MLB names right now. No. Dude, honestly, your average person can only name like probably 10 people in history, and if you talk to like NBA fans, they're saying Ken Griffey Jr. I don't know who else. I mean, Babe Ruth, Ken Griffey, Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Ichiro, Big Papi Ortiz, like these are the, I would say these are the names that even people who are not into baseball know. Right, they're sort of permeated outside of the sport into pop culture, which is rare for baseball players. Right. Literally, Ken Griffey Jr. is the only baseball player in baseball history. I'm not saying Ichiro and Shohei don't move units for like A6 or Mizuno in Japan. I'm talking about in America for Nike, Ken Griffey Jr. is the only guy to ever move units in history for sneakers. Wow. Like people want the Griffeys. Right, right, right. So I guess you guys let me know in the comments down below which reason do you think is the biggest reason why Shohei Ohtani is not a household name in America, despite being possibly, if he stays on this trajectory, the greatest baseball player ever, which is a top three American sport? Yeah, you know what the weird thing is? I'm actually like not fully in agreement with the MLB and the baseball subreddits, which I'm assuming are more full of like older white guys that are in their 40s. Possibly, yeah. I actually more agree with them. I think that baseball is really dying from a pop cultural standpoint and just the people are not individual personas because even Mike Trout, if I just pass by him on the street, I don't even know if it would register in my mind. No, yeah. And he's like a top three player too. Aaron Judge, like what does he look like? And Aaron Judge, he's on the Yankees and he looks like Derek Jeter. So he has, you know, almost like that clone thing going for him, right? He's got the, he's in Derek Jeter's shadow. Yeah, he looks like Alex Rodriguez too kind of. That's funny. But I'm just saying where I'm like, yeah, like I just think that that's the largest factor. However, maybe number two would be him being Japanese and then number three being the Angel Son. Right. Do you think how big of it being, if he was Japanese American versus being from Japan now, because there's even another step away from the cultural gap, you know what I mean? I mean, Jeremy Lin had a lot more articles written about his rise more than Yao Ming. Yao Ming had like more like geopolitical, like bridging the East and the West type articles, but Jeremy's was more like, hey, here's this guy that we never thought would do this thing. I think when you look at Shohei, he's gigantic. He's muscular. So it does break some East Asian stereotypes a little bit about being giant and muscular. But outside of that, he looks like a guy who should be really good. Whereas like even Ichiro Andrew was very small and he had generated like a lot of power from a small body. David, you know, I want to ask this question and this is a question that some people ponder on the internet. We also ponder ourselves. Do you think it's kind of weird or is there a correlation between the fact that baseball is dying and that not that many people care about soccer in America, but Asians happen to excel at those sports a lot? Like, do you think like once other types of people other than the original group of people start essentially dominating that sport, then that original group of people care about it less? Are you referring to maybe like, let's say for example, theoretically, if white women were super following tennis when Steffi Graf was winning and then it was Serena Williams and Serena Williams sort of passed the torch to Naomi Osaka. Obviously, Naomi's sort of like taking a break for several years now, but it seemed like women's tennis is being dominated a lot by, I would say like black or Asian women, right? Yeah, non-white people for sure. That's women's sport, women's tennis, actually male tennis is still. I think if like the NHL was like 75% black like the NBA or NFL, I think the fan base would change. Well, I guess that's interesting. I mean, that makes, that's all a little bit logical to be honest. But I guess like, aren't people gonna pass the torch in baseball? Like, is there gonna be a surge of now Asians are gonna take over baseball? Cause if there's one Shohei, why not? Is there, there can be Shohei B. B level Shohei. Are they just scouting like Japan now? Yeah, like I guess, and once it becomes Asian enough and obviously it's very Latino as well. So there's a large Latino fan base, but I'm assuming that the white, black or Latino fan base is not generally connecting with Shohei as much as they would if Shohei was more Americanized. Yeah, for sure. And I think even if he was like almost like a Ken Watanabe, you know, the actor from Japan who seems like, also he has a big international fan base because he's able to like sort of translate that like Ronin samurai vibe, but like in a Western way. I feel like Shohei, he's just not, he's not about the flash. But all right, last question, Asian Americans, should we care about them more? Like, is it also understandable that a lot of Asian Americans don't, are not super into Shohei, especially if they're not super into baseball? Like for me, I'm not super into baseball. Shout out to Shohei. I acknowledge he's probably gonna go down as maybe the greatest baseball player ever. It's kind of weird that we don't talk- Or at least most talented. He's probably not gonna win the most games because, you know, it's hard to impact the game that much as him. He might not have the greatest career, depending on what team he goes to and what team he stays on, but he might be the greatest singular player. So I guess, like, should we care? We should care more. Yeah, I think that Asian Americans, I would like to see more Asian Americans wear Shohei Otani jerseys. Okay. But it's tough because the Angels, it's like kind of a whack team to wear their jersey. You know what I mean? Like, if it was Yankees or Dodgers, for sure. Even white socks, like, people would go for it. Yeah, I mean, soccer, you got Son Heung-min, which is great. There's another couple other Koreans that are, like, top tier in soccer. So I think, like, should we, or is soccer just a world away? It's too foreign because it's also, the greatest soccer takes place across the pond. You know what I mean? So maybe that's another reason why soccer, we don't think as much about soccer. Yeah, I mean, I've just started to see people care more about soccer because Messi has come to the MLS. But it's an interesting question. Let us know in the comments section below why you think there's not a lot of talk in Asian America, or just America in general, about Shohei Otani's individual dominance. Is it a team thing? Is it because he's Asian? Is it because the Angels suck? Or is it just, like, everything, all of the above? What's the biggest reason? I wanna know what you think is the largest reason why. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching the Hot Pop, boys. Leave your comment down below, hit that like button. And until next time, we out, peace.