Why Everyone HATES The Worst Baseball Analyst

I'll never forget it, the day I first realized Stephen A. Smith simply didn't understand baseball. He claims to be a Yankees fan because he's from New York, which to be fair, alright, he's literally from the Bronx, but back in 2015, the Yankees blew a save against the Blue Jays and Stephen A. came out of his non-baseball hibernation to tweet out, boy, do I miss Mariano Rivera. Some Yankee non-closer just gave up a solo shot in the bottom of the ninth, allowing the Blue Jays to tie 3-3. That non-closer he spoke of was Andrew Miller, someone who had a 2 ERA in 2015 and that blown save Stephen A. was tweeting about was just his second of the entire year and it was the end of September. I can't find it now, but I remember one of the comments telling Stephen A. how oblivious and ignorant his tweet was before proceeding to suggest he's sick to kissing LeBron's ass and I always found that funny. But anyway, Stephen A. Smith has continued to be baseball's worst analyst and you gotta put that in quotes because he isn't really a baseball analyst. He doesn't know anything about the sport and he basically just says whatever will improve ratings when he talks about it. I guess in a way it's smart because whenever Stephen A. says something dumb about baseball it goes viral and I don't think any publicity is good publicity. You lose respect, in this case, from baseball fans. ESPN has made it pretty clear by their actions that at least when it comes to baseball, they don't value knowledge, which, I mean, hey, entertainment is always number one, but there's a balance to it. Being knowledgeable about baseball is good, but if you're boring, nobody will care. On the flip side, you can be entertaining, but if you sound like a third grader talking about the subject, that doesn't work either. Stephen A. Smith may be very entertaining to watch ramp, but you can clearly tell, especially when it comes to any baseball conversation that he has, that it's all fake and he doesn't actually have real opinions on the matter. He's just saying a take that can come across as extreme for the sake of being extreme. Classic examples of these are Stephen A.'s takes on Shohei Ohtani, beginning with his Now, would Shohei speaking fluent English and being able to be in a bunch of commercials speaking English be great? Sure. But that doesn't stop him from being the most talented baseball player ever, a worldwide superstar who does have a personality, whether you hear him speak or not, he's become one of the most recognizable athletes in the entire world. And just because he's not some American dude like LeBron or Tom Brady, he's bad for baseball? Like get out of here. If anything, it's awesome for baseball because it brings a bigger reach beyond American fans, which it of course has. It's all these casual takes that are so annoying because that's exactly what they are, casual but disguised as intellectual or legit. It's like a gynecologist trying to explain to you how to be a brain surgeon, and it obviously doesn't make much sense, but the gynecologist isn't self-aware and is trying to make what he is saying seem legit. And then you realize he's just a creep and not even a true gynecologist, so you just get the hell out of there quick. That's basically Stephen A. Smith with baseball without the creep thing, I guess. Jeff Passan, MLB's most popular and trusted insider, ended up debating Stephen A. on this, and it wasn't even a debate, more so Passan just being like, you're dumb and not fit to talk about this, you dumb dummy. And Stephen A. even apologized about the whole thing. He then went on to say a few years later that Shohei Ohtani isn't worth the money because the Angels aren't winning with him, not that they'd win without him, but they might as well lose without paying him too, and also went on to disregard Ohtani's influence on attendance and how Angels' road games has better attendance just because the opposing fans even want to see Shohei. Apparently baseball players shouldn't ever get injured, either, because when Mike Trout got hurt earlier this season, Stephen A. went on a whole rant not understanding why he's always hurt considering he doesn't play football or box or fight in the UFC, bringing up the idea that this injury was karma for staying with the Angels and not going to a more relevant team. I didn't think he could do it, I really didn't think he could sound any dumber or fake talking about baseball, but he did. Stephen A. outdid himself yet again, it's why he's paid the big bucks in his latest baseball conversation with Christopher Maddog Russo, who comes on to first take whenever baseball comes up considering he's another guy who can't stop yelling, basically the white Stephen A. And during this segment, the topic was the question of who's having a better season between Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. I don't really understand why this is even a discussion to begin with, obviously Ohtani has been incredible, but nobody is better than Aaron Judge right now, like there's no debating that, but for the sake of this fake conversation they had on ESPN, they had it. And the real Stephen A. actually I guess finally took Shohei Ohtani's side, I guess he finally learned that saying anything negative about the guy isn't intellectual or a hot take, it's just stupid. But with this then came an even dumber statement about Aaron Judge, I'm just gonna play the clip, watch. Shocker what Stephen A. said here is blatantly wrong. Why? Well Soto doesn't even hit behind Judge, he's in front of him in the lineup. The two literally just went back to back recently before this segment. Soto hit his first, then Judge. That alone negates any argument you can make. And even if the argument made sense, Shohei Ohtani has two MVPs hitting behind him in Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, so what he's saying just doesn't make any sense regardless. I understand Stephen A. can be entertaining and funny, but he clearly just isn't the guy to open his mouth about baseball. It never ends well. Let me know what you think and thank you for watching.