Shohei Ohtani may be fairly new to America, but he might already have a better understanding of the culture than his manager does.
Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic shared a clip of a great interaction between the Los Angeles Angels phenom and skipper Mike Scioscia. Ardaya noted that the Angels have been playing the “circle game” in the dugout this season, but that when Scioscia saw Ohtani doing it during Friday’s loss to Seattle, he thought Ohtani was referring to smoking weed. Here is the funny misunderstanding:
The Angels have been playing the “circle game” in the dugout, but when Shohei Ohtani did it last night, Mike Scioscia thought he was talking about smoking weed. pic.twitter.com/7sdNKOccDh
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) September 15, 2018
For those unfamiliar, the circle game is defined thusly by Dictionary.com:
The Circle Game is an activity where one person makes a “circle” with their fingers and holds it below their waist, convincing a second person to look at it. If the second person looks, they receive a punch to the shoulder.
Ohtani, 24, and Scioscia, 59, are in the first year of their working relationship, and it looks like they are teaching each other new things every day. Granted, Scioscia has had a bit of a generation gap with his other superstar as well.
