HA! Get it?!? Because they are both Asian...::waits out prolonged silence::...and all Asians look alike? Why aren't you laughing? Do I need to explain it again? Sure, that handshake basically symbolizes the passing of the generational torch from one historically accomplished and transcendently talented representative of a nationality that's underrepresented in the MLB to the young player who's most likely to fill his void as the pride of said nation going forward. That's probably a pretty important takeaway from that picture, but - aside from the obvious cultural significance - what else was a league-run social media account supposed to highlight other than the stereotypical similarities between the looks of two Japanese players? Never mind having the potential to mirror Ichiro Suzuki's impact on the entire landscape of baseball, because Shohei Ohtani's potential to mirror him as the lead role in the most racially insensitive biopic ever generated is really nipping at its heels! Ya know, I thought that a league of dwindling popularity amongst younger generations was being stubborn in their reluctance to let the fans they do have in that demographic organically market their product free of charge, but I think I'm starting to come around on the MLB policing their own social media presence. Clearly the most repressive league in sports is more intellectually equipped than the entirety of the internet when it comes having the infinite wisdom to know the difference between engaging and offensive. The argument could be made that their pop culture reference was almost as outdated as their general point of view on just about everything, but I think they really nailed the spirit of the Spiderman meme by turning into something that you'd expect to see forwarded onto your FaceBook newsfeed by the kid that you forgot to unfriend when he dropped out of high school. They may have swung at the lowest hanging fruit, but I'll be damned if their social media team didn't get all of it in pushing it about 100 feet foul. Two Asians, in the same stadium, at the same time! Before the MLB turned the attention on the extremely loose alikeness of their facial features, as opposed to the superiority of their standing in the sport, who would have even thought it possible!?!
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