NFR Why don’t We Care… (baseball)

jasmillo · Jul 31, 2023

About a Shohei Ohtani? Unless you dig deep, it seems like few are talking about him. The guy is hitting over .300 with 39 homers and is a top 5 pitcher in MLB IMO. It’s been this way for 4-5 years now. Modern day Babe and nobody seems to give a $hite.

Is it baseball? Has that sport fallen so far? I’ll admit, I loved it as a kid and young adult but have not been a regular viewer/follower for years. I have been following him though. Not sure why this guy is not as big as Jordan in 93.

RCF · Jul 31, 2023

A truly great pitcher and, batter from what I have seen.

Maybe that is the problem ---> not enough visibility because he is on a west coast team. West coast teams get little to no love and games start too late for east coasters to watch. Add to that he is not a team that is not very good --> have not been to the playoffs for last 8-9 years. So why would that team get much TV coverage? They don't...

jasmillo · Jul 31, 2023

RCF said:
A truly great pitcher and, batter from what I have seen.

Maybe that is the problem ---> not enough visibility because he is on a west coast team. West coast teams get little to no love and games start too late for east coasters to watch. Add to that he is not a team that is not very good --> have not been to the playoffs for last 8-9 years. So why would that team get much TV coverage? They don't...

Yeah, that could be part of it. A generational talent though. The only guy playing both sides of the ball so the speak in that sport in decades. Not only that..doing both at HOF levels. Pretty amazing.

Maybe he needs a better social media manager

…

clarkman · Jul 31, 2023

I dunno, the morning sports guy I typically listen to says he's the best he's ever seen.

jasmillo · Jul 31, 2023

clarkman said:
I dunno, the morning sports guy I typically listen to says he's the best he's ever seen.

Sports guys recognize him for sure. Problem is, nobody else seems too…

RCF · Jul 31, 2023

jasmillo said:
Yeah, that could be part of it. A generational talent though. The only guy playing both sides of the ball so the speak in that sport in decades. Not only that..doing both at HOF levels. Pretty amazing.

Maybe he needs a better social media manager …

He needs to be on an east coast team. TV media is much stronger than social media but when both are on play - best of all times.

clarkman · Jul 31, 2023

RCF said:
He needs to be on an east coast team. TV media is much stronger than social media but when both are on play - best of all times.

Or, on the other LA team.

I don't really watch baseball at all until the world series...and even then, sometimes not. But man, what this guy is doing is just insane!

jasmillo · Jul 31, 2023

RCF said:
He needs to be on an east coast team. TV media is much stronger than social media but when both are on play - best of all times.

I hear you but it’s not like we have not had sports superstars in California for decades now. Magic Johnson, Kobe, Lebron, Barry Bonds, the bash Brothers going back to the 80’s, etc., etc.,

This guy is just not hitting .302 with 30 homers a year and we can have the discussion about how much bigger he’d be if he played in NY. He is a generational type talent. Once in a lifetime type stuff.

Sad, because it’s kind of like Messi in Miami. We’re talking about it but we’re not really talking about it. Except with Ohtani, it’s Americas Pastime not soccer (btw, no hate for soccer here, I played for a lot of years).

Divad · Jul 31, 2023

Curse of being on a team like the Angels. Few watch your games and they don’t make postseason to get any additional viewers.

Because he wants to stay west coast I hope for his sake the Dodgers pick him up.

clarkman · Jul 31, 2023

Divad said:
Because he wants to stay west coast I hope for his sake the Dodgers pick him up.

Same. Him on the Dodgers would get me to the television far more often.

clarkman · Jul 31, 2023

I mean, the Angels played a double header a few days ago. All Ohtani did was pitch a one hit shutout in game one and knock in not one, but two HRs in game two! How good is that!?!?

Dr. Magill · Aug 1, 2023

clarkman said:
I dunno, the morning sports guy I typically listen to says he's the best he's ever seen.

I hear that a lot
I guess one needs to listen to the right stations

Josh · Aug 1, 2023

jasmillo said:
it seems like few are talking about him.

I dunno if this rings completely true. a week or so ago, every single trade-deadline article was about Ohtani and if the Angels would move him. Every one of those articles sang Ohtani's praises and quotes his stat line.

clarkman · Aug 1, 2023

Dr. Magill said:
I hear that a lot
I guess one needs to listen to the right stations

I don't watch a ton of baseball, but enough through the years. He's the best I've ever seen and it's not close....even watching what Bonds did (taking steroids out of it, just how captivating it was in that moment).

Buzzy · Aug 1, 2023

clarkman said:
Or, on the other LA team.

My wife and I spent half of June and half of July in Redondo Beach (CA), we saw lots and lots of LA Dodgers hats, flags, bumper stickers, etc. I think the Dodgers get the fame, at least in the South Bay. My wife and I don't watch baseball anymore but we do follow Shohei - modern day Babe? He's truly amazing!

Dr. Magill · Aug 1, 2023

Buzzy said:
My wife and I spent half of June and half of July in Redondo Beach (CA), we saw lots and lots of LA Dodgers hats, flags, bumper stickers, etc. I think the Dodgers get the fame, at least in the South Bay. My wife and I don't watch baseball anymore but we do follow Shohei - modern day Babe? He's truly amazing!

Nothing else like him
Amazing is about right

jasmillo · Aug 1, 2023

Josh said:
I dunno if this rings completely true. a week or so ago, every single trade-deadline article was about Ohtani and if the Angels would move him. Every one of those articles sang Ohtani's praises and quotes his stat line.

For sure, but like I said, baseball people and baseball media are definitely talking about him. The American public is not….at least the level you would expect IMO.

In the end, my reason for asking this question has nothing really to do with Ohtani. More about the state of baseball as a sport in this country. I think Ohtani could walk down most main streets in America and be fairly unmolested/unrecognized. Crazy for a once in a lifetime MLB talent playing in a major market. Compare that to say Jordan in the late 80’s and 90’s who probably could not go unbothered in the shitter in his own house. Maybe not a fair comparison considering the marketing juggernaut that surrounded Jordan in his prime but the buzz should be more closely aligned IMO. Could be Ohtani’s more reserved personality. Part could be the team and coast he plays on. It seems to be more driven by the fact baseball’s relevance as a sport has just fallen so far, despite the gigantic contracts its stars are given. Just look at the crowds at his games as well. Below is a screenshot of him hitting one of his two home runs in the second game of a doubleheader last week in which he threw a 1 hit shutout in the first game. So many empty seats. So much has changed for the sport of baseball since I was a kid in the 80’s and 90’s.

Edit: Also @Josh, thanks for updating the title with NFR and more context. I assume that was you. My bad on that!

Josh · Aug 1, 2023

jasmillo said:
The American public is not….at least the level you would expect IMO.

I think this says more about where baseball is in the collective mindset these days than it does about Ohtani. Up until the pitch clock etc changes this year, baseball was in a long boring spiral of four hour games on cable channels that many of us don't get any more due to cordcutting.

Baseball leaders seem to forget that this isn't 1960 any more and there are many other sports to watch and things to entertain us these days. It took them forever to make some changes to address that.