ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith didn’t make himself many friends among the Los Angeles Angels fanbase on Wednesday.
Smith went on a brutal rant about the Angels and the place where the prominent ESPN personality believes that they stand, which is to say, nowhere near relevancy.
“Don’t expect to catch Stephen A. Smith at a Los Angeles Angels game any time soon,” Awful Announcing tweeted. Smith’s rant sounded like this:
“The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim… no one cares about you,” Smith said without realizing that they are no longer called that. “I don’t even know–I’ve been in L.A. quite often. I never hear anybody talking about the Angels. We love driving by the stadium; it looks really nice.
“No one cares. You’re irrelevant, period,” Smith emphatically said.
Don't expect to catch Stephen A. Smith at a Los Angeles Angels game any time soon pic.twitter.com/W3tsDJJDiw
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 5, 2023
It’s not the first time Smith has taken this harsh a stance. The ESPN personality famously acted as if the New York Rangers of the NHL did not count when discussing New York teams close to winning a championship.
The Angels do, at times, struggle with issues even while housing Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. But it’s entirely different for a personality to come right out and emphatically tell the audience that no one cares about them, too.
Smith’s rant sparked a significant reaction from those who found it on Awful Announcing’s Twitter account.
"The Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim, no one cares about you. No one.
I've been in LA often, I never hear anyone talk about the Angels.
We love driving by the stadium, looks really nice. No one cares, you're irrelevant."
What an idiot. Typical east coast bias 🤡. https://t.co/oMBZQYcjKS
— AngelsWin.com (@AngelsWin) July 5, 2023
There are very legitimate criticisms to be made of the Angels and how they market their team to a larger audience.
This isn't one of those legit criticisms. https://t.co/hoBlwdKGPJ
— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) July 5, 2023
The #Angels have won more than his precious #Knicks over the past 50 years. Cry more @stephenasmith https://t.co/Prtks2z1hJ
— brian #FreePalestine 🇵🇸 (@awesombrian) July 5, 2023
https://twitter.com/jack_mcmullen11/status/1676651862731137028
This take by Stephen A. is weird
Doesn’t matter how bad they do in a season, they will still somehow gain fans to come watch games
I get the frustration but baseball is a team sport which requires more than 2 superstars to carry your team to the playoffs
I blame the ownership https://t.co/d2iu6tDb6h
— Velazquez SZN over 🦑 (@Chris_Halos3) July 5, 2023
This is what fans get when ESPN consolidates all of its talent into a few people https://t.co/XgnvubhQGt
— Pat Benson (@Pat_Benson_Jr) July 5, 2023
Is this the same guy that Tried to discredit Ohtani because he doesn’t speak English? This guys stinks and i will never take him seriously. Us real fans know where we stand. Keep us out of your conversation and ps don’t worry about us babe https://t.co/mFQeJD4tP7
— •Tania •❤️ (@taniaconfetti) July 5, 2023
Vitriol? Animosity? Just pure hate? I mean DAMN, no actual explanation? Just because the Dodgers are the more popular franchise doesn’t mean the other franchise defaults to irrelevancy. I believe there needs to be more context. https://t.co/ImPVGMttHt
— Jason Takhtadjian (@realjasonsarkis) July 5, 2023
