Even if it’s a battle they won’t win, you can’t fault MLB for leaving no stone unturned, exhausting every resource at baseball’s disposal in its ongoing quest for relevance. That’s led commissioner Rob Manfred to enact widespread changes, appealing to fans with gimmicks like ghost runners, wider bases, and a pitch clock penalizing pitchers and batters for going over their allotted time limit. Those improvements have helped streamline a sport known for its leisurely pace, though baseball is still struggling to attract new fans, partly because talking heads like Stephen A. Smith are oblivious to it.
Positioned as one of the most influential tastemakers in sports media, Smith has long neglected baseball, a blind spot he’s been reluctant to address throughout his First Take tenure. With both football and basketball out of season, Smith decided this would be a good week to fire off his annual baseball take, contending that, in spite of All-Stars Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, “no one cares” about the Los Angeles Angels.
“I’ve been in L.A. quite often. I never hear anybody talking about the Angels,” said Smith. “No one cares. You’re irrelevant, period.”
Don't expect to catch Stephen A. Smith at a Los Angeles Angels game any time soon pic.twitter.com/W3tsDJJDiw
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 5, 2023
The clip quickly went viral, sparking outrage among fans, who resented Smith’s adamant dismissal of a sport he knows little about.
“Nothing that he said was incorrect, but it wasn’t well-received in baseball circles because they know that Stephen A. Smith doesn’t actually care about baseball,” said Jared Carrabis during his appearance Thursday on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. “I even got accused of gatekeeping. They’re like, ‘You’re gatekeeping who can and can’t talk about baseball.’ I’m not saying Stephen A can’t. Baseball needs that exposure. If you’re talking about baseball on a national stage, that’s great. That’s always a good thing for the sport.”
While it would help if Smith were more informed on baseball, the fact that it crossed his mind at all is progress, providing free publicity for a sport that desperately needs it.
“His platform is such that, inside league offices, you want Stephen A. Smith [to talk baseball], however bad the take is,” said David Samson, a former MLB executive best known for his 16-year tenure with the Miami Marlins. “You know how many times we begged [former ESPN president] John Skipper to do something better with our sport through ESPN? He would have none of it. So the fact that Stephen A. Smith would take a minute, however misguided it may be. The only hope is that, eventually, he will be able to have better takes. But as we talked about, maybe there’s no such thing as better takes anymore.”
Clearly, baseball isn’t the draw it once was. Samson wouldn’t have to beg ESPN to cover it if it were. But Ohtani provides at least some semblance of hope, an unprecedented talent capable of carrying an entire sport.
“I don’t know how many new fans they’re converting,” Carrabis said of MLB’s rule changes. “When [Ohtani] hit the home run over the weekend, and it was 493 feet, that’s one of the first times that I think I saw a highlight of a baseball player make it outside the baseball circle. People that don’t care or pay attention to baseball at all were like, ‘This guy’s the real deal.'”
[The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz]
