While the Rest of the World Watches Breathlessly...

MLB and ESPN need to get on the same wavelength, at least if they both want to grow their ratings. Because the two sure looked to be going in opposite directions during the All-Star game. MLB is interested in all things Shoehi Ohtani, no doubt seeing the Japanese player as a means to expanding the game’s international footprint, though it would be nice if someone in authority bothered to ask Ohtani his thoughts on the matter. So, we get Ohtani in Homerun Derby, Ohtani as the AL’s starting pitcher, Ohtani staying around to DH. Say this, if nothing else for Commissioner Rob Manfred and company—it’s a plan. At the same time, ESPN was running commercials between innings of the All-Star Game touting the upcoming Red Sox/Yankees’ series, starting tonight in the Bronx. Guess who’s broadcasting two of the games? Yup, the same folks who gave us those “fans” of each team talking G-rated trash to one another. (I’m also betting FOX carries the Saturday Boston-New York game. We’ll see.) As a guy with a Ph.D., I always said American urban history is what happened in New York; everywhere else—Chicago, St. Louis, Denver—was local history of no great significance, except for Al Capone, who exists for the periodic shaming of the Second City. Funny how you rarely hear that Capone was a transplanted Brooklynite. Anyway, back to baseball. The ESPN ads conjure up a lot of old stereotypes that maybe resonate in the shadows of Fenway Park and Yankee, but I doubt anywhere else. If the ESPN depiction of baseball fans in fact exists (and I’m always ready to think ill of the Big Apple, if not the Hub), I doubt they much care about a Japanese player excelling in MLB. As for those fans who do care, I doubt what happens in the Bronx this weekend will matter much to them. Count me in their corner.