Shohei Ohtani made an appearance during the Thursday Night Football game at SoFi Stadium, and fans went wild when they spotted the new Los Angeles Dodgers star in their midst.
During a lull in the action in the second quarter, a huge cheer went up from the crowd. Noting the commotion, Amazon Prime analyst Kirk Herbstreit quickly pointed out that the stadium had just shown Ohtani on the big board.
Only Herbstreit offered a horrendously bad pronunciation of the Japanese superstar’s name.
“They just showed Shohawn Atoney … Otoney,” Herbstreit said.
“Yeah …” Herbstreit’s partner Al Michaels quickly said, jumping in to save him. ‘Shohei Ohtani now a Dodger, that’s the reason for the cheering.”
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1738023072157053192
Hey, we’ll cut Herbstreit a break here, as he’s a college football and NFL analyst, not a baseball guy; it would be like asking, for example, MLB analyst John Smoltz to pronounce Indianapolis Colts defensive end Adetomiwa Adebawore’s name.
Then again, Ohtani just became the highest paid player (10 years, $700 million) in U.S. team sports history, and presumably Herbstreit has heard someone talking about him before.
Herbstreit’s Ohtani fail both amused and disturbed fans on X/Twitter. Some fans even earned bonus points by working “SEC” references into the conversation.
He’ll be “O”toning for that one for a while
— Average Sports Media (@AvgSportsMedia) December 22, 2023
Does @KirkHerbstreit not know who Shohei Ohtani is? How can you mispronounce his name that wrong? #Amazon #NFL #MLB #Dodgers pic.twitter.com/SagcuNWlYw
— Everything Shohei (@ItsShoTime17) December 22, 2023
https://twitter.com/NFL_DovKleiman/status/1738019614301237528
https://twitter.com/KashwrapSupreme/status/1738017497679290591
Shohei isn’t in the $EC so @KirkHerbstreit has never heard of him… (“The Dodgers ain’t played nobody Pawl!!!”)
— Angry Gobbler (@GobblerAngry) December 22, 2023
Shohawn otoney
— Annoying Pudgy Guy (@annoyinpudgyguy) December 22, 2023
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.