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College Football

Stephen A. Smith issues 3rd statement trying to clean up earlier Shohei Ohtani comments

Keith Farner

By Keith Farner

Published:

ESPN broadcaster Stephen A. Smith has now made three attempts to try and clean up his comments from Monday morning about Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani.

The host of the ESPN show “First Take” said that the Ohtani, who is Japanese, can’t be the face of Major League Baseball because the Angel doesn’t speak English fluently.

Since there was considerable backlash about those comments from Smith, he has issued three statements to clarify what he meant.

He initially said that the comments were misinterpreted to be about the state of the game, and that, “some of the greatest players in the world are foreign players.” He also called Ohtani the, “second coming of Babe Ruth.” He instead was referring to the “marketability and promotion” of the sport.

About an hour later, he issued another statement, where he tweeted, “Amazing that folks still don’t know me after all these years. If I am wrong about something, I will apologize. Especially if I unintentionally offend ANY GROUP of people — because it’s the right thing to do. Period! I’m BLACK. I would know! See y’all tomorrow on @FirstTake.”

Finally, he issued a third statement when he said, “I’m sincerely sorry.” He wrote that he never intended to offend any community, particularly the Asian community. He admitted that “it’s on me and me alone!”

Apparently, he also intends to reiterate these statements on First Take on Tuesday morning.

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.

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