"Nothing Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge do is mildly interesting" - Sportscaster blames superstars' 'dull' lifestyle for MLB’s lack of popularity

Sports radio host Ben Maller called out superstars Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani while reacting to MLB and ESPN ending their decades-old broadcasting deal. On Thursday, both parties agreed to end their partnership after the conclusion of the 2025 season.

Major League Baseball and ESPN are bringing an end to their 35-year partnership, which dates back to 1990. According to The Athletic, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred cited one of the reasons for the move as the "minimal coverage" the league has received on the network.

While discussing the issue on Friday's episode of The Ben Maller Show, the host blamed MLB for their failure to create "interesting" stars while also pointing the finger at the likes of Judge and Ohtani for not doing their part. (starting at 2:30):

“There are plenty of stars in Major League Baseball. They just don't carry over to Sports Talk Radio and they don't carry over to sports television because they're dull. That's the ugly part that nobody wants to talk about right. We're saying the quiet part out loud.

"Aaron Judge is amazing for the Yankees and Shotani Ohtani is outstanding for the Dodgers they're both great stars but there's nothing they do that is mildly interesting away from the field. Nothing.”

Maller expanded on his criticism of MLB superstars 'dull lifestyles' by referencing a recent viral video of Shohei Ohtani covered by TMZ.

“Like the other day there was a story Otani ended up on TMZ because he couldn't parallel park that's the kind of stuff that we're getting okay that's not a lot of meat on the bone it's not and so that's part of the problem,” he said.

TMZ posted the video on Wednesday, showing Shohei Ohtani struggling to parallel park, taking several attempts before finally succeeding and heading to a team dinner.

MLB analyst and Justin Verlander's brother, Ben, reacts to Shohei Ohtani parking video

MLB analyst Ben Verlander could not resist taking a sly dig at Shohei Ohtani's parking skills. While resharing TMZ's video of Ohtani attempting to parallel park, the brother of the Cy Young-winning pitcher added the caption:

"TMZ taking a video of Shohei Ohtani parallel parking is just cruel. Nobody deserves to have a camera recording them parallel park. Especially when you’re this bad at it."

While Ohtani's parking struggles do help the three-time MVP be more relatable to fans, it's not exactly the most interesting off-field tidbit.