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Wandai Wrection: ESPN Gafffe Mangles Little Leaguer’s Favorite Singer

By Patricia Didelot
Published on: 04:13 PST, Aug 6, 2013

ESPN put up a graphic with some information about Little Leaguer Nagiru Hiramatsu’s favorite singer as “Wandai Wrection.” Really?

This is reminiscent of the Asiana pilots names incident,when KTVU broadcast fake names for all to see, which were reportedly confirmed by an intern at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

In this case the situation is not as serious, it’s just laughable. If you search for Wandai Wrection, it doesn’t exist. Well, maybe now it does, because everyone is talking about it, but it’s not a real band or singer.

One Direction however, is a British boy band, even if you’ve never heard of them. Some haven’t. This is probably what the young Japanese player was trying to say with a heavy accent.

ESPN might have thought nobody actually sits through the hours and hours of Little League coverage, but apparently many do. We are talking about it here.

The moral of the story is this: If you’re a reporter talking to a foreigner with a heavy accent and you don’t understand what is being said, check and double check before publishing.

Now ESPN is left red-faced for the Wandai Wrection thing.

The term actually made it on Twitter for a bit and as more people become aware of it through this and other publications, it might make it again.

Here are a few examples:

It seems like people took it as more of a joke than anything else, but should the network make a public statement?

Do you think ESPN should apologize to the Japanese player for the Wandai Wrection gaffe?

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