“When I look at Ohtani, he’s big time … This brother is special, make no mistake about it. But the fact that you have a foreign player that doesn’t speak English, that needs an interpreter, believe it or not, I think contributes to harming the game to some degree when that’s your box office appeal. It needs to be somebody like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, those guys. Unfortunately at this moment in time, that’s not the case.”

Though acknowledging Ohtani’s accomplishments are “nothing short of spectacular”, he continued: “I understand baseball is an international sport in terms of participation. But when you talk about an audience gravitating to the tube or to the ballpark to actually watch you, I don’t think it helps that the No 1 face is a dude that needs an interpreter so you can understand what the hell he is saying in this country.”

“In other sports like basketball, you notice, Dirk Nowitzki was German and Manu Ginobili and others were from other places, and guess what? They spoke fluent English. You understood what they were saying when somebody was interviewing them. They didn’t need an interpreter. It goes a long way. For some reason with [MLB], you’ve got these guys that need those interpreters and I think that compromises the ability for them to ingratiate themselves with the American public, which is what we’re really talking about.”

Smith issued a video on social media trying to clarify his comments saying they was being misinterpreted.

“A lot of [foreign players] need translators. You know, Spanish, it can be Mandarin, Japanese, the list goes on and on and on. If you are trying to ingratiate yourself with the American public the way [MLB] is because of the problems that you’re having to deal with in terms of approving the attractiveness of the sport, it helps if you spoke the English language,” he said.

“But in the United States, all I was saying is that when you’re a superstar, if you can speak the English language, then guess what? That’s gonna make it that much easier and less challenging to promote the sport.”

Three hours later, Smith posted a written apology with the caption “I’m sincerely sorry”, presumably in response to the increasing attention from the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community.

“Let me apologise right now. As I’m watching things unfold, let me say that I never intended to offend ANY COMMUNITY, particularly the Asian Community – and especially SHOHEI Ohtani himself. As an African-American, keenly aware of the damage stereotyping has done to many in this country, it shouldn’t elevated my sensitivities even more. Based on my words, I failed in that regard and it’s on me, and me alone! Ohtani is one of the brightest stars in all of sports. He is making a difference as it pertains to inclusiveness and leadership. I should have embraced that in my comments,” he wrote.

“Instead, I screwed up. In this day and age, with all the violence being perpetrated against the Asian Community, my comments – albeit unintentional – were clearly insensitive and regrettable. There’s simply no other way to put it. I’m sincerely sorry for any angst I’ve cause with my comments on First Take this morning. Again, I am sorry. And I’ll happily reiterated these words more extensively tomorrow morning as well.”

Earlier in the day, Smith also received backlash for his comments over the Nigerian basketball team’s surprise 90-87 win over the US on Saturday, in which he poked fun at some of the players’ names, including Nigerian-American Miami heat player Gabrial Nnamdi Vincent. Several Nigerian teammates and fans have since criticised the remarks.

“When you talk about bonafied stars in the NBA, we can pick at least 15 to 20 of them, half of them are on this roster. There is no excuse to lose to Nigeria, some dude Gabe Nnamdi who goes by Gabe Vincent for the Miami Heat, or Caleb Agada, or … however the hell you pronounce his name. You give up 60 points on threes? Excuse me, you can do better than that,” Smith said.