Kirk Herbstreit Mispronounced Shohei Ohtani’s Name, and MLB Fans Weren’t Having It
Amazon Prime Video NFL analyst Kirk Herbstreit historically butchered Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani’s name during the Thursday Night Football broadcast featuring the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints, and baseball fans simply couldn’t believe it.
Herbstreit, a consummate professional who is a diehard Cincinnati Reds fan, somehow called the newly signed Dodgers star something along the lines of “Shohan Ahtony.”
“Shohan Ahtony” -Kirk Herbstreit pic.twitter.com/RhOL1sqxEz
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) December 22, 2023
Herbstreit’s Hall of Fame play-by-play partner, Al Michaels, stepped right in.
“Yes! Shohei Ohtani now a Dodger!” Michaels chimed in seconds after Herbstreit butchered the pronunciation.
The Ohtani reference by Herbstreit was made after a live shot of the Dodgers star made its way onto the big screen at SoFi Stadium. Ohtani was gifted a jersey by the Rams organization Thursday night, as the franchise fully embraced the baseball star who will play his next 10 seasons for Los Angeles.
There’s little doubt it was an honest mistake by Herbstreit, but nonetheless he was destroyed on social media for mispronouncing such a prominent baseball star’s name.
Here are some of the best reactions to Herbstreit’s slip of the tongue:
Our lawyers will be contacting Mr. Herbstreit posthaste. https://t.co/sQjjaSxsgd
— Productive Outs (@ProductiveOuts) December 22, 2023
Kirk butchering the pronunciation that bad somehow makes his fury against trading Jonathan India last season even funnier https://t.co/0U2RqCVL4z
— Rookie Randy Wells (@rookierandyw) December 22, 2023
Checkout this call by Kurt Herbstraus https://t.co/39Ref508TX
— Mooch (@RVAMooch) December 22, 2023
That's not even hard to pronounce. https://t.co/byN1t13r7h
— David Naylor (@ProfCedar) December 22, 2023
https://t.co/YOOkIuRuaV pic.twitter.com/ry4qCd9ywy
— John Lund (@lundinbridge) December 22, 2023
Shohan Ahtony > Shohei Ohtani > Kirk Herbstreit https://t.co/Bbu9LJXcnm
— Felix on The Felix Show (@FelixRadio) December 22, 2023