Stephen A. Smith doesn’t always talk about the Los Angeles Angels, but when he does, it seems to elicit controversy.
Last week, Smith closed a segment from ESPN’s First Take about Shohei Ohtani’s future to declare no one cares about the Angels. Here to dispel that rumor is Wayne Randazzo. The play-by-play voice of the Los Angeles Angels joined the latest episode of the Awful Announcing Podcast, which will be released in its entirety Friday, July 14. During the interview, Randazzo was asked about Smith’s latest MLB hot take.
“Stephen A. is gonna say what he wants to say,” Randazzo noted. “That’s his job, he’s supposed to stir the pot and be controversial and make headlines. And I think he did with that. But I think it speaks to the actual relevance of the Angels that saying something like that made headlines, because it was so absurd that it got people to pay attention, which that’s what he’s there for.”
During the July 5 episode of First Take, Smith stared right into the camera and said, “The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, no one cares about you. No one. I’ve been in LA quite often, I never hear anybody talking about the Angels. We love driving by the stadium, it looks really nice. 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 blunt declaration came almost exactly two years after Smith complained Major League Baseball wasn’t marketing Ohtani enough, only to later allege the global superstar isn’t capable of being “the face of baseball” because he uses an interpreter.
“Any time some clown on TV says you’re irrelevant, it will stoke a fanbase, of course it will,” Randazzo said after being asked how Angels fans reacted to Smith’s statement. “Stephen A. made some enemies around Angels fans and I’m sure he doesn’t care and I’m sure they don’t care about him either.”
Randazzo explained that the Angels are “extremely relevant,” citing their attendance record and the attention that clips featuring Ohtani get on social media. “I see the attention that these calls get when highlights are out,” Randazzo said. “Trout and Ohtani both, they do something and the highlights are everywhere.”
There aren’t enough NFL and NBA topics to fill national sports TV and radio shows in July, which is why they start talking Major League Baseball on occasion during the summer months. And when trying to talk baseball, every one of those national shows leads with Ohtani, who has been on the Angels since 2018 and remains on the Angels today, keeping the Angels relevant.
“Shohei puts those conversation on TV,” Randazzo said. “He did it during the World Baseball Classic, he’s done it with the kind of season he’s had, he’ll continue to do it through the trade deadline and then with his own performance…If Stephen A. Smith wants to talk baseball because of Shohei Ohtani, then I think it’s a win for the sport.”
Listen to Randazzo’s full appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast Friday, July 14, which includes discussions about working with Howie Rose, calling Albert Pujols’s 700th home run, and getting to cover Shohei Ohtani. Subscribe to the Awful Announcing Podcast and to Awful Announcing’s YouTube channel for the latest clips and highlights.
