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© Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Mike Trout elected to 11th All-Star Game; 4 Texas players chosen to start
By RONALD BLUM NEW YORK©2023 GPlusMedia Inc.
14 Comments
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garypen
I imagine Ohtani will selected for the pitching roster in addition to DH, as he was in 2022 and 2021.
rainyday
And Ohtani just hit his 29th home run, setting the Angels record for most home runs in a month with 14 in June.
It isn't even the All Star break yet and he's already close to matching his total from all last season.
Mocheake
Story mainly about the Angels. Ohtani s picture, Trout's selection. Yeah. OK, but the Angels are not that relevant. In other news, Domingo German of the New York Yankees pitched just the 24th PERFECT GAME in AL history yesterday but I know Ohtani didn't do it so it's not newsworthy in these parts. That there is very relevant though, and is for the real baseball fans out there.
Yubaru
If he was named Senga or Uehara or Nomo, be front page news though! Just goes to prove, it's not about the game, it's ONLY about the players from here. Funny one never hears about Fujinami
rainyday
So? Hometown favorites get more coverage. How is that different from how sports has been reported everywhere, throughout history?
Not sure I get it. Guys having terrible seasons on terrible teams don't generally get much coverage, why would Fujinami be any different?
Mocheake
I get it completely. The people here are generally just casual MLB fans. They are only interested in the Japanese players who are in the spotlight and are being treated like some kind of new phenomenon. Angels fans here are only fans of the Japanese player making headlines. Frontrunners. Yoshida is having a pretty good season for the BoSox but because everyone here is only feeling Ohtani, there's nothing about him in the papers.
rainyday
Again, so?
Most people in the US are casual baseball fans at best who only pay much attention to the big stars too. Your average American baseball fan has almost zero knowledge of baseball played outside of America (NPB, what is that?)
This is pretty normal and I don't understand the logic behind the criticism. The news in Japan has to report everything about MLB even though most of that stuff isn't of any interest to the Japanese public?
I think Yoshida gets plenty of coverage. He's having a "pretty good" season (.294 avg, 8 home runs) but that is a huge cry from leading MLB in home runs while also being a top quality starting pitcher. Its ridiculous to expect that Yoshida would get anywhere near as much attention as Ohtani. Hell, even in Boston he probably isn't getting as much attention as Ohtani......
garypen
He had such potential when he was younger. Personally, I think he was overworked during his phenom period, and ended up being prematurely bled dry. Such a shame.
garypen
I don't know what article you're referring to. But, this article only mentions Trout, Ohtani, and the Angels in the first two sentences. The rest of the article, roughly 85% of it, is written about other players and other teams. Did you stop reading after the first two sentences?
As this is an article specifically about All-Star team selection, and only All-Star team selection, it's entirely understandable that it doesn't include other baseball news. Why would you expect it to?
Mocheake
Your point missed the mark by the length of a long drive to centerfield. I caught it and turned it into a double play. Baseball fans in the U.S. are MLB baseball fans. They cannot get NPB there so how can they really know anything about it. When I first came to Japan, there was very little knowledge or interest in MLB. Nomo and a few others go to the U.S. and instantly the Dodgers are popular as hell here. Never heard them mentioned before but Nomo is on commercials and wearing his uniform so... you should know the rest. Japanese MLB "fans" can get games here but they only get games that feature Japanese players because the networks and people only care about what the Japanese players are doing. They are not true fans. They only watch Japanese players' games. If Ohtani leaves the Angels, guess what? You will never see the Angels on TV again unless his new team is playing them and also, miraculously, all those former Angels "fans" will then be "fans" of his new team. You know it. I know it. JT knows it and all the downvoters know it. Fact. That's all I deal with.
rainyday
Ah, screw that. I hate this kind of stupid elitism. Who made you the arbiter of who gets to be a “true” fan?
I mean, so what if fans like a particular player rather than being loyal to a particular team? That isn’t just a Japanese thing either, fans in North America do that all the time too.
I’m still left with my “so what?” question unanswered. If people want to root for Ohtani without making a solemn lifetime commitment to the Angels, where is the harm in that? I don’t see it at all. I’m happy to have more casual fans enjoy the game I love, why rain on their parade?
Gene Hennigh
Mr. Mocheake
These parts is Japan. This is Japanese news. You seem to think you and the US knows better than these parts.
Why are you commenting here at all? Japan doesn't know baseball, Japan over-rates Ohtani, Japan reports badly. . .If it is all so bad, go to MLBs page and comment there. Go to The Sporting News page and comment there. Oh, and while you're doing that, check to see how many stories are being written about Shohei Otani. There will be a LOT.
But, Ohtani's over-rated, the Angels are bad, my favorite player is better, my foot hurts, I know more about baseball, . . . go somewhere else to whine. Ohtani is simply super great. Live with it. Just because he's from these parts doesn't make him any less incredibly good.
Mocheake
Where in my post did I say Ohtani is overrated or any of the other bs you wrote? Maybe you can't read as the article was about the MLB all-star game and since it's about that, I posted based on that. You can call it a whine but I call it knowing the facts, and yes, I DO know more about baseball. Good on you for recognizing that.
Gene Hennigh
Mocheake --
MLB "fans" can get games here but they only get games that feature Japanese players because the networks and people only care about what the Japanese players are doing. They are not true fans.
In Japan and in the US, Ohtani is very popular. And what is wrong with Japan reporting about a Japanese player? In Illinois, the Chicago Cubs are featured over any other team, whether they are good or bad. By your definition, they are not true fans. So how is Japan different than the US? In all the MLB venues, the hometown team is favored.
Oh, yeah. What is a true fan? In the US, to get the casual fan interested there is a time-clock, fantom base runners, and soon probably strikes and balls not being called by human umpires. So what is a true fan? A US citizen?
Your complaint about Japanese coverage seems to be spurious, at best. True fan? Definition, please. Like "pure hitter" it seems to have no relevance to anything. Please, educate us untrue fans.