The Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes have captured the interest and allure of the baseball world. While many baseball fans want to know the latest news and information surrounding Ohtani’s free agency, there is a reported desire from Ohtani’s camp to keep negotiations quiet. In fact, it was reportedly revealed that it will be held against teams involved if they leak any details of the free agency to the media, much to the chagrin of Chris Russo.
On Wednesday’s edition of First Take on ESPN, Russo had an impassioned reaction towards the mystique and enigma surrounding Ohtani. Russo feels that anyone who will pay him $600 million “needs their heads examined.” The reaction continued by reminding viewers that the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani’s team throughout his career, only won 73 games last year and that he provided no explanation when leaving the team with 25 games to go following his injury.
The moment that circulated across social media on Wednesday though was when Chris Russo questioned if Ohtani’s free agency was similar to the atomic bomb. Being from Japan, the country with cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki that were subjected to the atomic bomb by the United States in 1945 during World War II, many people felt his remarks were insensitive and presumptuous in scope.
“What is this, the atomic bomb?,” Russo asked. “We’re not allowed to find out? This is baseball – he’s a celebrity – this is what it’s about. This is stupid that somehow, some way if you reveal that you had a breakfast with Ohtani, you should be basically thrown out with the bath water.”
“I don’t think I would drop a flag on that one,” replied D’Marco Farr, filling in as a co-host on Sedano & Kap on ESPN LA 710 on Wednesday afternoon. “I think that’s okay.”
Farr continued that he felt it was a good rant from Mad Dog, agreeing with much of what he had to say outside of the reference to the atomic bomb. Farr then asked whether or not Chris Russo thought about his historical reference before making his comments on First Take.
“I kind of think he didn’t just come up with atomic bomb and World War II talking about this particular Japanese baseball player,” co-host Scott Kaplan said. “I think Russo is so famous and so rich and so visible that I doubt ESPN is going to come back and go, ‘Hey, that was really offensive to a lot of people; we’re getting a lot of complaints. You’re fired.’”
“That’s what Russo does,” Farr added, “but yeah, it’s not that I don’t disagree with most of what he said. It is kind of annoying.”
