The unobjectionable stars showdown
Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani had a polite showdown, the looming issues with sports betting, and more.
Tomohiro Ishii is a long-time professional wrestler in New Japan Pro Wrestling. His nickname is the “stone pitbull.”
I would submit that there is no nickname across the worlds of sports and entertainment that is more perfect.
Today:
Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, and noncontroversial superstars
Sports gambling gives another hint about the troubles to come
Odds and ends about the NBA Finals, AI advertising, and an early retirement in the NFL
And not a word of trash talk was spoken
The Los Angeles Dodgers played the New York Yankees this past weekend in a rematch of the 2024 World Series. Both big market teams have followed up their pennant victories with strong starts in 2025. And both teams have been led by their respective superstars, likely the two best hitters on the planet as we sit here today.
Aaron Judge has spent most of the season with a batting average north of .400 in addition to his typical power output. He’s “down” to a .391 average to go with his 21 home runs and 50 RBI. Judge is a 4.7 WAR player so far.
Shohei Ohtani spent part of the weekend with the Major League lead in home runs at 22 (Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners passed him by Sunday with his 23rd homer). He is a 3.0 WAR player so far.
Ohtani’s OPS+ is 192 (with 100 representing league average). That number is obviously quite impressive. And then I’ll tell you that Judge’s OPS+ is 249.
In the run-up to that series, I listened to an episode of Effectively Wild where Meg Rowley and Ben Lindbergh discussed how Judge and Ohtani are “unobjectionable stars.” Sure, Judge will get some hate for being on the Yankees. But otherwise, these two are polished and professional and stay out of trouble.
Some might even say they’re boring. At least they might say that about Judge. I can’t imagine finding Shohei Ohtani boring.
As Major League Baseball struggles perpetually to market its own game, you could see the efforts to make this past weekend’s series a big deal. Besides the World Series rematch angle, the league and its partners tried to push the showdown between last year’s MVPs.
Judge and Ohtani both delivered big moments, starting with each hitting home runs in the same inning. Ohtani went on to hit a second home run in a Dodgers victory, and the ESPN on MLB account even tried to make it a matter of Ohtani vs. Judge:
Of course, Judge didn’t actually have anything to do with those home runs. And neither of these guys would indulge that angle or make it about beating the other. But I bet the league wishes they would.
Instead, both Judge and Ohtani would talk about helping their team, only caring if their team gets the win, and so on. The life of an unobjectionable star.
It’s a bad thing
Lance McCullers Jr. made his first start of the season last month after missing time with an injury. He pitched poorly, allowing seven runs in just one inning of work.
It happens. Tough days like that are part of the fabric of MLB’s long season, for individual players and for teams. As these professionals deal with those days, however, there is a new factor in their lives: angry gamblers.
ESPN reports that an intoxicated bettor was the one to threaten McCullers and his family after the bad start. In the course of that story, ESPN shares quotes from other players about the state of things as gambling is legalized and promoted by the leagues.
For example, Christian Yelich said the following about threats and angry messages online:
"I think over the last few years it's definitely increased. It's increased to the point that you're just, 'All right, here we go.' It doesn't even really register on your radar anymore. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.”
It’s definitely a bad thing.
It’s also not a new thing. Players increasingly just view it as the new reality. Here’s a clip of Denver Nuggets players Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter, Jr. discussing the topic in a way that echoes Yelich’s comments.
While it’s impressive how resilient these athletes are as they roll this issue up with the other challenges of being famous, I think most people would agree death threats shouldn’t be normalized this way.
Presumably the people in charge of the leagues would also agree. It’s just hard for them to find the space to say so between all the DraftKings ads.
Odds and ends
The NBA Finals start this week. Zach Lowe has an excellent preview of the match-up between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers (YouTube).
Meta wants to provide the capability for companies to run advertisements that are 100% generated by AI (The Wall Street Journal). At least the DraftKings ads where Kevin Hart has seven fingers will be funny.
Detroit Lions center Frank Ragnow, one of the best offensive linemen in the NFL, retired at the age of 29 (Yahoo!). I find it admirable when players make this tough decision in their prime, and I hope Ragnow finds peace and health in his post-playing days. He can start by ignoring any social media comments from people who placed futures bets on the Lions for the 2025 season.
The Detroit Tigers might be the best team in baseball. Kerry Carpenter hit three home runs yesterday as they added another win to their record. Let’s wrap up again with a video of some dingers.
https://youtu.be/-lRUdnYIbP8?si=N6XwkZXvbB3kjgMm
Image of Aaron Judge via Wikimedia Commons
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