Most baseball fans agree that Shohei Ohtani striking out Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout on Tuesday night was a scintillating end to a tremendous World Baseball Classic.
But not televised personality Chris Russo. The "Mad Dog," as some like to call him, had eyeballs rolling out of their heads after claiming on ESPN's "First Take" talk show that he was unimpressed by the way the World Baseball Classic championship game ended.
He rambled on that he was "bored stiff" by the moment and questioned why so many found the moment to be the stuff of memories. He said:
"We're going to make this out to be an epic at-bat? ... Why, because they're teammates?"
Ranting that Trout strikes out 175 times a year, a figure he's never come close to except in 2014, when he whiffed 184 times, he continued:
"They’re making this at-bat out to be the greatest at-bat in the history of Major League Baseball. It’s March 21, can we take it easy?"
Baseball fans around the world once again saw Russo's diatribe for what it was: Bombastic schtick.
Russo, who hosts "High Heat" on MLB Network, is known for his own particular brand of gruff haranguing since hosting a radio show on New York's WFAN sports station. His MLB Network show is one of the lowest-rated shows on the channel and is often pre-empted by baseball games in the summer months.
Russo's debate opponent, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, sat with his mouth agape as his fellow debater kept making snide comments about the ending of the World Baseball Classic, until he finally exclaimed:
"You don’t want to see Shohei Ohtani against just anybody. You want to see him against the likes of somebody like Mike Trout. You want to see him go up against Mike Trout. It ain’t no intentional walk. It ain’t no strategy. It’s me against you, baby. Let’s get it on."
Most fans seem to agree that the sooner Russo gets his walking papers, the better.
World Baseball Classic viewership way up in 2023
Ratings for the World Baseball Classic were way up for this year's tournament. Team Japan's 3-2 win over Team USA in the title game logged 5.2 million viewers for Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes combined.
The 4.48 million that watched the FS1 broadcast surpassed viewership numbers for Game 5 of the 2022 National League Championship Series, where the Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Diego Padres to advance to the World Series.