Jack Morris, a commentator for the Detroit Tigers, received an indefinite suspension in 2022 for his racial remark towards Shohei Ohtani, a top pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels.
Morris used an exaggerated East Asian accent while saying “be very, very careful” in response to play-by-play announcer Matt Shepard’s question regarding how the Tigers should pitch to Ohtani in the sixth inning. In the ninth inning, Ohtani was brought back up, and Morris apologized profusely.
Bally Sports Detroit announced Morris’ suspension.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy for bias or discrimination and deeply apologize for his insensitive remark,” Bally Sports Detroit said in a statement.
“It’s been brought to my attention and I sincerely apologize if I offended anybody, especially in the Asian community, for what I said about pitching and being careful to Shohei Ohtani,” Morris apologized.
I believe that is “Hall of Famer” Jack Morris, and it sure sounds like he’s mocking Japanese speakers on live television. – keithlaw
The encounter occurred 31 years after Morris told a young female reporter that he “only talks to women when I’m naked if they are on top of me or I’m on top of them.”
Shohei Ohtani spent all his time learning baseball
Ohtani revealed in a GQ interview from last year that he spent all of his time on baseball and didn’t make the effort to study English there. Ohtani claimed that he would speak English if he had to, but right now, baseball is his top priority.
Ohtani was asked if he had ever attempted to study English during one of these interviews with GQ. He spoke back in Japanese and said:
“I mean, if I could speak English, I would speak English. Of course I would want to. Obviously it wouldn’t hurt to be able to speak English. There would only be positive things to come from that. But I came here to play baseball, at the end of the day, and I’ve felt like my play on the field could be my way of communicating with the people, with the fans. That’s all I really took from that in the end.”
Ohtani received the 2021 AL Most Valuable Player Award in addition to the 2018 AL Rookie of the Year Award.
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