This Baseball Player's Favorite Band Is Probably not "Wandai Wrection"

Aug. 7, 2013— -- This story was updated with response from ESPN.

Sometimes, individuals or small groups of people exhibit displays of racism and you chalk it up to their upbringing, cemented by some combination of fear and ignorance. You hope that they become better educated, more aware, more empathetic. You wonder whether they're unaware of their racism, in denial of it somehow, or just trolling for attention or to make some misguided point related to whatever their personal agenda happens to be. And then, sometimes, a outlet does something... questionable... and all you're left thinking is HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

Such is the case with a chyron ESPN aired this week during coverage of a Little League baseball game. While showing viewers some stats on 13-year-old player Nagiru Hiramatsu, the network claimed that his favorite singer was "Wandai Wrection."

Say that name out loud.

Yeah, it's a joke (OR IS IT?) based on mispronouncing the band "One Direction."

So, how did this end up on tv? It's still unclear, but someone wrote in to Big League Stew with a theory. The man explained that his son's Little League team had made its way to regionals and, as such, had their big game televised by ESPN. He shared that his son and his teammates were asked to fill out an ESPN questionnaire that included questions like their favorite food or band. "So it is quite possible," the father ventured, "that the boy wrote out the name of the band that way."

Indeed, one source at the network told me that, in these cases, a translator will help the players fill out their questionnaires. In this case, then, it looks like the translator needs a translator. And/or a crash course in the musical tastes of tweens.

ESPN had the following to say about the incident:

"We apologized on air during the game telecast and also personally apologized to the team and player after the game."