Michele Tafoya says she did not want the Angels announcers to stop talking about Shohei Ohtani. Rather, she was talking about the physical baseball he hit for his hundredth career home run.
On Saturday, Tafoya tweeted: “@Angels broadcast… Enough with the @Ohtani baseball chatter!!! @BallySportWest”.
Tafoya told The Post that she was watching the game with her husband, a former Division 1 baseball player, and son, who plays in high school. They were joking around with each other about how much time the Angels’ telecast spent talking about the actual ball off Ohtani’s bat.
“We were laughing because they did not stop talking about this baseball and how someone brought it to their booth, and people taking pictures of it, and on and on and on and on and on,” she explained.
Michele Tafoya was NOT saying the Angels’ announcers should talk less about Shohei Ohtani. Getty Images
Shohei Ohtani hit his hundredth career home run over the weekend. Getty Images“We started cracking up. It was like the Tedy Bruschi game. When he came back from a stroke, it was almost the entire four quarters of the football game was about Tedy Bruschi regardless of what was going on on the field. It was just overkill on this baseball in our opinion. I wasn’t upset. It was sort of, ‘Come on you guys!'”
Tafoya’s tweet, though, caused a stir on social media with the assumption being she wanted the telecast to stop discussing one of the most talented and unique players in the game. After speaking with The Post, Tafoya responded to the backlash.
“Really? If you read the tweet again, I said enough with the talk about the Ohtani ‘baseball,” she wrote. “IMHO, the broadcast went overboard showing the actual BALL — maybe more than they showed Ohtani. The home run was fantastic, the coverage of the physical baseball was a little much.”
Tafoya left NBC’s Sunday Night Football sidelines after this past football season, and is currently co-chairing the Minnesota gubernatorial campaign for Republican candidate Kendall Qualls.
She is in agreement with the rest of the world that Ohtani himself is a marvel.
“It was more sarcastic, it was like ‘We see the baseball.’ The moment itself was an amazing moment! This guy is incredible. Ohtani is a freaking miracle. He’s awesome.”
