Shohei Ohtani Impacting the Asian Male Image

Is Shohei Ohtani the next Bruce Lee? He's having a historic MLB season right now and we are discussing the impacts he will have on the perception of Asian men. Yeah I mean is Shohei a real life super saiyan? Let's run the clip. His 2-1 pitch. Ohtani. Spokesman right center field. Heroics come right after Shohei Ohtani. What? Stole two bases and tied the game with a home run and this is where he ranks right now in the National League. Third in average. First in homers. First in RBIs. Second in stolen bases. First in OPS. Boom there you have it Andrew. That was the last game. He just went 53 with 53 stolen bases. Some people say he might go for 55, 55 or maybe even probably a never will be touched 60 for 60. Guys I'm not saying I'm an expert on baseball but I'll let some baseball experts explain how good he is. I thought Shohei Ohtani was better than Babe Ruth and I got pushback. I admit I was wrong. He's significantly better than Babe Ruth. He is the first six tool player. This is a rehab season. He's not fielding. He's not pitching. Even Mookie Betts said I don't know how to explain it. He's just feeling sexy. He just has one of those days. He's just feeling it. This season he is first in runs, second in hits, first in home runs, first in RBI, OPS, slugging percentage, total bases. There's never been anything like this guy ever on a absolutely loaded roster. Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, there's talent everywhere on this roster. Even Ohtani is markedly better, superior, more remarkable than every other player. And oh yeah, for the first time in his career yesterday, among his personal exploits, he clinched a playoff spot. So we'll get to see him in October. He deserves it and so do we. I don't know if there are any superlatives left to describe accurately what we're seeing from this guy. Entered play in Miami yesterday. Two home runs and one stolen base shy of the 50-50 club. Nobody's ever had that. All right, David, but we got to talk about because there's a discussion going on about Shohei Ohtani's impact on the perception of Asian guys because he might be at the end of his career, if he stays on this track, possibly the greatest baseball player of all time. Right. Like some people are saying he's like Babe Ruth mixed with Ichiro. And then plus he's followed up by Mookie Betts, who's kind of like the new, you know, I mean the closest thing to Ken Griffey Jr. So they're creating this rush hour combo. Could that impact American society? Right. So we have five reasons why it will impact Asian men, you know, because that's what we kind of talk about on this channel is, you know, things that happen in the macro that may influence things and factors and how Asian men or Asian people are treated. But also here are five reasons why it won't directly affect Asian guys. So we're about to get into it. Right. So make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications, check out Smiley Sauce on Amazon.com. I would say this, point number one, Andrew, it's great representation that Asian guys can show their sons and that may affect how their sons see themselves. I think that this is going to be the single greatest impact of Shohei Ohtani being such a great baseball player. You know, he is from Japan, so he's not quite an Asian American, but I will tell you this, that this really, athletes, I think above all affects other men. And when I mean other men, I mean like other Asian men or other Asian people, Asian women as well, but Asian men who are raising Asian sons, I think these is huge. Yeah. And I think in previous generations, they didn't have these clips of like Jalen during Linsanity or like Shohei Ohtani of Asian guys dominating in the West. Right. There's like a highlight tape on YouTube, just like straight up 10 minutes of Jeremy Lin dominating the NBA, you know, at least at that time that he did. And then there's going to be probably an hour long footage of Shohei Ohtani dominating the MLB. Right. From a pitching and a batting standpoint. So number two, I think he's just like extremely, he's a top two player. It's like him and Aaron Judge at the top of the MLB. So I think that that matters too, because it's like indisputable. You can't say, oh, you're only a fan of him because he's Asian. Right now, comparing him to Jalen. First of all, Linsanity was an incredible run, but it was fairly short lived in the timeline of his career. Right. But Shohei is like indisputably a top player. Yeah. And I think he's hitting home runs. Like I think everybody was a fan of Ichiro, but Ichiro is all about getting on base, hitting singles. Right. And Shohei Ohtani is doing the stuff that even a casual or even someone who doesn't know anything about baseball can understand home runs and stolen bases and strikeouts. When he is pitching, people can understand that. Point number three, it brings people from Asia and Asian America together because a lot of people in Asia who follow baseball, which the primary places to follow baseball are Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. They're all supporting Shohei, even though some of those places, they all kind of got like some historical beasts with each other that they're setting aside for Shohei, because Shohei is also a really nice guy, even in international competition, whereas Ichiro was not. This is an interesting question that I have, David, and maybe I don't know if you can answer it, but do you think Shohei's impact is actually even stronger in America or the Western countries amongst the Asians or more impactful in Asia because it's uniting the Asian countries and especially the Tigers, right? The Asian Tigers, because they all have like sometimes some very up and down history with each other. Yeah, but between Korea, Japan, obviously such a history, and then Taiwan, and then I don't know if they play baseball in like Singapore or other places, you know. Yeah, I mean, there's probably some baseball fans in China, but just not a high percentage compared to basketball. That's a good question. I'd have to talk to somebody in Asia. I think that the other thing is, Andrew, I think he's going to impact the way older people view Asians. You know, like, Andrew, more than likely, if you work a Fortune 500, a Fortune 100 job in America, your boss is into baseball. If you look at MLB average median fan statistics, it's an affluent 57-year-old white male. That usually means some sort of senior leadership in a company. Right. Now, we're going to talk about it. Yeah, it is MLB's major fan base leans more older and older male. And with money. Yeah. And so, a lot of those guys are like bosses, managers, or whatever. So, I wonder if at work people are starting to get like the Shohei Ohtani like nickname, or if like the Asian guy at work is starting to play it up and be like, yeah, I'm about to Shohei that report. You know what I mean? I got a 55 for 55 coming up from the for the presentation on Monday. Yeah, we have yet to know. I don't know. You guys let me know in the comments below if Shohei Ohtani's name is being thrown out as a nickname to people. And point number five, David, Shohei is actually one of, and this is different, this is, usually Asians are not the biggest in their sport, but Shohei is one of the bigger MLB players. Right. I guess you're saying it's more like a Yao Ming situation where he's on the much larger, more physical dominant end, where usually the Asian guys coming in, for example, Andrew Ichiro, right now, Steven Kwan, shout out to Steven Kwan, we know him, like they're smaller than the average player. Yeah. I mean, even Mookie Betts, the black guy who bats right after Shohei is only 5'9". Shohei is 6'4", 210 pounds. Well, he's almost like a LeBron out there. Yeah. Him and Aaron Judge, obviously the oversized guys that look like they're almost playing another sport like NFL or basketball. Right. So I guess maybe almost less Jeremy Lin and more Yao Ming in this case, if we had to draw an NBA comparison to Shohei, perhaps Yao Ming during his, like some of his better, better seasons. Jay Lin was tall for a one though at that time. Right. But anyways, guys, so we talked about how it's going to impact Asian men and here's why Shohei's impact is not going to be as directly impacting Asian men as we may think, considering he's such a great athlete. Okay. Here's the number one thing, by the way, guys, we're always offering points and counterpoints, huge Shohei fans. I'm going to go to Takier Gramercy, which is a Dodgers bar in New York City. I'm going to go watch all the playoffs. I am buying some Shohei gear. I swear in a future video, you're going to see me wearing a Shohei shirt. Yo, I was watching for this video, I was watching a bunch of the Shohei highlights, especially he had the last best week in like MLB history recently. My adrenaline levels were surging. Number one, Andrew, I don't know if a baseball player has made a mainstream cultural pop cultural impact in America since Ken Griffey Jr. Maybe you could say Derek Jeter, A-Rod, you know what I mean? Like when was the last time a baseball player, like a lot of people could not even recognize Mike Trout and he was the previous guy that people thought was going to be a 10 out of 10, his Hall of Famer. No, it's true. I mean, you got major hitters, Barry Bonds, probably the greatest hitter of all time, but like do people want to be like Barry Bonds? Maybe when Barry Bonds was in his younger with the white socks. Maybe. But yeah, people wanted Griffey's though. Yeah, but Derek Jeter, I would say was the last one to kind of like be in the pop culture lens, you know, obviously dating all the models and stuff. That meme still goes around about everybody that Derek Jeter dates. So obviously he's like kind of like basically was a cool cultural icon. I just don't see it translate to the street in the sense of like, let's say you're a bigger, taller, buffer Asian guy right now. Do you think you're getting Kel Chouhey right now? Whereas when Asian guys were playing basketball and Jeremy Lin was popping, if you just hit like two shots in a row as an Asian, people were like Jeremy Lin. Yeah. I mean, it's different because in baseball they're like fully clothed. Sometimes like their arms have sleeves on them. They have long shirts. They have pants on, helmets, hats. So it's not as like revealing. It's not like you get to see Chouhey's like ripped body. I don't know if Chouhey's ripped, but like you don't get to see his like muscles like just pumping. Like what if MLB like they wore like, what if they just wore tank tops and played baseball? I don't know if that would help with the female audience. Well, I think it appeals to older people who are like, want to wear suits and like believe in getting dressed up for work and stuff like that, to be honest. Kind of like uniform. It's uniform. It's a uniform. No, it's classy. And Chouhey's classy, just as this Rob Lowe clip would play. I walked into the clubhouse. He was by himself. He was in his workout shorts and his uniform top. And I introduced myself, told him I was a fan, asked him if I could take a picture. He absolutely said so. So I thought he would just stand up and we take the photo because look, he got completely dressed. He said, give me a minute. Stirrups, socks, cup, pants, belt, hat. And then, and I thought that was, I thought it was so emblematic of like his level of respect for the game and attention to detail. Number two, reason number two that Chouhey may not have the same impact as, for example, as some people are saying Bruce Lee is that he doesn't have a particularly vocal personality. He's very humble, soft spoken, all about the team, all about the sport, all about discipline, but he's not really like bombastic or anything like that. Yeah. I mean, and I think his personality, you could compare it more to like an early Steph Curry, I guess, if you had to compare it to an NBA player. You're saying super clean cut, wholesome. Yeah. But someone like who you're not looking to them to say a quotable or say something funny or say something wild. And this goes along for MLB players in general. Like really there's not that many MLB players and guys, I'm not an MLB fanatic, but let's be honest, like that there's not that many MLB personalities that go viral. Yeah. I mean, I would say even Mookie Betts, who is very popular because there's not that many super high tier black American players anymore playing baseball, but it's like even his personality isn't too crazy. So I'm asking without this cool or maybe sexy, like, I guess, tag on them, how big can Chouhey's impact be, for example, amongst women versus like K dramas have a huge impact on women's perceptions about Asian men because those are romanticized stories. Women watch them. And there are stories about Asian men falling in love. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think this is one of the things this is like an aside. I think that the MLB needs to address because MLB players have to be going viral outside of their on field. Right. So do you think some people view Chouhey almost as like a prodigy Baymax and battle mode more than he is like a cool hero? No, I think in Japan, he's absolutely a cool hero. But in the West, I could see the perception because they can't relate to everything that he's saying or like they want more edginess or something like that from the West. Point number three, Andrew, just because a man is great at a sport, it doesn't mean that his archetype necessarily takes over in pop culture. Right. So this is like kind of the point of just because Chouhey might let's say he goes down as the greatest baseball player of all time. First of all, as an Asian, that feels great. And I do think that that's definitely an argument for more young Asians to play baseball. If Chouhey really is the greatest baseball player of all time. I'm not saying he is yet. You almost got to put your kid in at least one baseball program to see if they like it. Right. Right. But I think it's because it's not like LeBron was arguably always a top player in the league every single year of his career. But it's not like people try to become like LeBron or that like LeBron looking dudes became trendy. You know what I mean? Well, I would say Steph impacted the way the game is played more. Yes. Steph Curry definitely did impact the way the game was played more. And I think more kids wanted to play like Steph Curry. But I guess like are people going to try to emulate either are men going to try to emulate Chouhey Ohtani in the way he acts and carries himself or are women going to find that attractive? And I think it's just very it doesn't just because a guy dominates a sport doesn't actually mean it does transfer over. Right. Right. And then for women to like Caitlyn Clark's taking over the WNBA is I see a lot of girls training to be the next Caitlyn Clark. But I don't know about like aesthetically are guys like trying to date a Caitlyn Clark, you know, or like, I don't know. Right. It doesn't really work that way. Right. Right. Right. You're saying they're going to be chasing any girl who kind of looks like Rick Owens? No, I'm just saying. Yeah. Point number four, he's not really built like an average Asian guy. Like we said, he's six, four to two, 10. His parents were pro athletes. His genetics are booming 10 out of 10. Do you think that makes people look up to him more like he's a saying or they're more looking at their own situation? Like I got to look at Stephen Kwan because my body's going to be more like his. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, again, there's this relatability factor. I always think about Yao Ming. Yao Ming was carried himself with honor. He was very funny. He had a great sense of humor. No drama. No drama. Yao Ming was good at basketball, but he was also a giant, right? It was kind of unrelatable for a lot of people, even though I think a lot of people like liked Yao Ming. We all loved Yao Ming. We all love Yao Ming. He's a good guy. But did you want to be like Yao Ming as a man? Right. It was tough. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. And then last but not least, Andrew, do you think Asian-Americans have distanced themselves so far from the Asia-Asia experience, it's hard for them to fully embrace Shohei? Or do you see Asian men talking about Shohei more than other people? Or is it just as far as America goes? Obviously, in Japan, it's a whole nother story. But like, you don't see Asian guys talking about Shohei necessarily more than any other baseball fan? Yeah. No, I mean, I think that first of all, I do think Asian guys care about Shohei Otani more than the average baseball fan. But I think that there's maybe this feeling that Asian-Americans have tried to veer so far from like, being seen as a fob that even though Shohei is not like a Chinese international fob driving a Bugatti with like, messed up hair and like, Balenciaga shirt, but like, he's a Japanese fob. He's a he is a Japanese, he like doesn't speak English very well, right? It's very heavily accented and stuff like that. And so I think that there may be some sense that maybe some Asian-Americans are so Americanized that it's not going to affect them as much that this foreigner who's still a foreigner, he's not an American citizen, is an amazing baseball player. I think it's going to depend on how Americanized you are, what American subculture you adapted to, and how much you could relate to things from Asia. Yes. Like for me, I always looked at like, shout out to Yuki Chiba, and we actually just saw him randomly in New York, like, and he's doing the team Tomomura Di and like, that song with Megan Thee Stallion. I could respect it, but I could see some Asian-American guys not relating to that too, like Yuki Chiba, so, which is co-rebranded. Somebody said, let's get into the comments section, Andrew, thoughts from Asian-American men. If he only married Sidney Sweeney for the rest of us. So basically, this is sort of saying like, I wish Jeremy Lin would have dated Kim Kardashian at the because there was rumors. There has to be some sort. They're saying for it to affect the totality, I guess, of Asian-American males' perception or lives, he would have needed to do that. Right. Like date a superstar. But I'm saying, obviously, for me, I like the decision that he made. He married Mamiko Tanaka, who was the center on the Japanese national basketball team. She's like 6'5", 11. He's 6'4". Like, I don't think Shohei thinks like that, though. Shohei's not trying to date like models. And, you know, I mean, he's not John Mayer or like Pete Davidson or DiCaprio. He's not even thinking like that. I mean, what do you think about that? And are people relying on guys that are sports stars to like be Derek Jeter or A-Rod? You mean and date all the famous hot women? I mean, Shohei, like I said, he's not from this country. He's probably, well, he's already married, so he's probably not going to date any of those women. And yeah, I guess it would help, but I think that's not the only impact he's going to have. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't think, just can't, don't look, just be glad that Shohei's playing baseball. We do want to be grateful that Shohei is possibly the greatest baseball player. Don't rely on these celebrity guys to date the girl of your dreams so that in your, within your fishbowl, that brings you closer to your Sidney Sweeney of your small town you chose to stay in. Last but not least, Andrew, this was a thought that came out of the comments section. Somebody said, I'm telling you, Asians need to stop trying to play baseball and worshiping basketball because they're not good at it. I am talking to you guys, Chinese and Filipinos, you guys need to start playing more baseball and soccer because apparently you can be much better at baseball and soccer relatively with the shorter height of an Asian. David, and one last comment was this guy said that he thinks Shohei Otani is better Asian male representation than even Bruce Lee. No, he says because it was real life versus movies. Yeah, that's what he says. He said because he's actually doing it in real life. Here's the reason why, yes and no. First of all, I wasn't even alive for Bruce Lee's impact at all. I don't even remember anything, but I'll say this. Yes and no, because at the end of the day, to me, I look, man, shout out to Shohei. Baseball is not a contact sport. You know what I mean? So it's kind of like, it's more between you and the baseball. I'm not saying there's not some fights that arise when like the pitcher tries to take the batter's head off, but you know what I mean? Like, I just don't know if it's viewed the same, the small ball sports, you know, golf, tennis, baseball, they're not viewed the same. Yeah, I mean, I think that there's pros and cons to everything, you know, like, you know, maybe everybody getting called Bruce Lee who was not Bruce Lee or having people come up to somebody saying, like Bruce Lee, which you still see to this day. There was pros and cons to that, you know, and some people take it as offense and some people take it as a compliment. I think movies do have a big impact. I think sports in general has a big impact. But again, for our reasons that we've listed, I do think that there's a mixture of impact that Shohei is going to have. And I think the biggest, biggest impact that Shohei is going to have is not necessarily on the American women's minds of making like, kind of like a boyish looking Japanese six foot guy, like, hot. I think it's really going to inspire Asian men. I think it's really inspiring Asian, young Asian fathers and young Asian kids to maybe play baseball, but to also be like, carry themselves with class and confidence. Or how about this? I want to be the Shohei of what I do. Yeah. Because I can see what, you know what I mean? It's possible. Because I think a lot of the reason is a lot of Asian American guys, not all, but you know what I'm saying? Like a, let's just say a substantial ratio. If they're not shown these image images or imagery or this narrative young enough, sometimes they can get older. And then even in their own mind, they don't believe. Yeah. I mean, he's kind of like a beefy, like Japanese slugger and like, he's super talented, great at everything. But I guess like if Shohei did like a sexy shirtless photo shoot on the cover of like Vogue or like, you know what I mean? Like that, you know what I'm saying? Like he would have to basically Shohei would have to sexualize and romanticize himself on some level for that to have a larger impact. And that's honestly what would need to happen. And now whether that's sexualizing himself as far as who he dates, which he's married, happily married, right. To a beautiful, tall, Japanese basketball player. But if he's not romanticized like in stories or movies, or maybe he does like cameos and like some movies as like a love interest or something. I'm just saying, those are the kinds of things that you would need to stack on top of unfortunately being a great baseball player, just because baseball players, they're not, they don't got all the juice right now. I would say this, man, I'm more looking at how internally to your point, the Asian American community is going to react. I'd like to see maybe people get past some of their old beefs from their parents or their grandparents, which are real, they're real beefs. Things happened, but put those aside and didn't just support Shohei. It's more about how the Asian American community reacts internally, rather than like Shohei is going to get you that next raise or that next date. Yes. Yes. Don't think about Shohei giving you that next date. I don't know. Maybe amongst a really big baseball fan, if she's a female, like, yeah, maybe it's possible. No, it's possible. It's, it's possible. I Latinas, I'm not in LA anymore. I'm not, I'm not in LA right now. So I don't know how the atmosphere is. Maybe there are some young women who are looking for their Shohei. That's cool. Like it's possible, but I haven't heard any stories yet, but Andrew, you need to go to the next Yankee game and see it, you know, in the, how they're going to react to you. Hey, you know what? I'll wear a Shohei shirt around New York and see what response I get. But hopefully it's not hate for the Dodgers. But anyways, uh, yeah, I mean, guys, let us know what you think Shohei Otani's impact is on Asian men. First of all, his impact on baseball is being well-documented guys, ESPN. Everybody's going to be talking about his impact on baseball. And because I don't know that much about baseball, but what I do know is I know the Asian community. So let me know what your thoughts are. Feel free to disagree, but shout out to Shohei. I mean, he could be the GOAT baseball player and that's not for nothing. All right, you guys let us know what you think in the comment section below until next time we'd hop out boys. Be out. Peace. Go Shohei.