The competition will be held in America, and the event will be held in South Korea. But when the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres open the Major League Baseball season with two games in Seoul this week, all eyes will be on Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani.
It says a lot about Ohtani's extraordinary appeal that Korean baseball fans, like his legions of fans in Japan, are excited about his soon appearance in the batter's box at Gocheok Sky Dome. It tells a story.
The 29-year-old is widely considered to be one of the most talented players in baseball history, a once-in-a-century phenomenon who has drawn comparisons to Babe Ruth as a pitcher and slugger.
After six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani ultimately signed a $700 million contract with the Dodgers in December, making it the richest contract in North American sports history.
Showtime, who has been named the American League's Most Valuable Player twice, has achieved national hero status in his native Japan since joining the Angels from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2017, and has continued to build on the path he has forged. It is no exaggeration to say that I followed the steps. Our illustrious predecessors, Hideo Nomo and Ichiro Suzuki.
Ohtani outperformed him baseball The compatriots became one of the most talked about baseball players in memory. Even a right elbow injury that will keep him off the pitcher's mound this season didn't dampen expectations as the Dodgers arrived in South Korea for a series of warm-ups before MLB games on Wednesday and Thursday. Ta.
While they don't usually heap praise on Japan's great sports rivals, Korean sports fans made an exception for Ohtani, responding to his Instagram account with positive posts, saying, “It's one of my favorite countries,” he said.
“Due to the atmosphere in Korean society, it's often difficult to openly say that you like Japan,” said Lee Jeong-seon, a sports culture expert at Hanyang University in Seoul. “I think Ohtani will probably be the first Japanese athlete that we can say we like. Maybe some people will consider him an honorary Korean citizen.”
This was also reflected in the Korean posts of “X”. He said, “Ohtani's favorite country is South Korea.The Japanese person that Koreans like the most is Otani.''
The Japanese squad will not be limited to Ohtani, but will include teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto (who made his MLB debut and is the highest-paid pitcher in history), as well as Padres' Yu Darvish and Hiroki Matsui.
Otani fever has been running high ever since Japan defeated defending champion USA with a thrilling 3-2 victory in last year's World Baseball Classic, leading his home country to victory.
After signing a record-breaking contract with the Dodgers in December, Ohtani managed to turn an eye-popping financial reward into a positive verdict on his character, with the bulk of the money coming in annual increases starting in 2034. I proposed to the team management that I accept the offer. So that we can invest in more players right now.
Off the field, he rarely does anything wrong. Ohtani, who is from Japan's northeastern region, which was devastated by the triple disaster in March 2011, donated an undisclosed amount of money to the earthquake-hit peninsula on New Year's Day. Last year, he sent 60,000 baseball gloves to elementary schools in Japan, the equivalent of three baseball gloves to each school.
Like the Japanese expatriate players before him, Ohtani is pursued by an army of journalists, whose coverage fills the pages of sports tabloids and full-fledged broadsheets alike. Column Inch has featured the latest information about the elbow injury and Ohtani's dog Dekopin.
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He is the public face of several companies, including Porsche, sportswear maker ASICS, Japan Airlines, and Bank of Mitsubishi UFJ. Professor Katsuhiro Miyamoto of Kansai University estimates that Otani's economic impact reached 50.4 billion yen ($334 million) by the end of last year, and if Otani were able to participate, the economic impact would be 64.3 billion yen ($400 million) this year. It added that the amount would increase to $27 million. A free agent at the time Miyamoto's report was published, he was traded to the Dodgers.
“The economic impact of Ohtani's success is immeasurable,” he wrote, according to the Japan Times.
“Show fever” can sometimes reach bizarre proportions. Japanese television interrupted its regular programming to report the “breaking news” of Ohtani's surprise announcement that he had gotten married, and his wife's identity was only made public weeks later – again due to media coverage. It was just that. In 2023, when he became the first Japanese player to win the American League home run title, newspapers distributed special editions, and Japan Post issued commemorative stamps and postcards. Last summer, his hometown's rice fields were transformed into a giant illustration of his famous son.
The Dodgers' arrival in Seoul comes at a critical moment in the burgeoning relationship between Japan and South Korea, where conservative leaders have been trying to resolve a bitter conflict stemming from Japan's colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945. It was a moment.
Still, few expected the Japanese player to enjoy this level of praise in South Korea. Hundreds of fans greeted the Dodgers at Incheon Airport last week, chanting Ohtani's name and holding up replica shirts. On Monday, they gathered again in large numbers at Gocheok Sky Dome to watch a warm-up match against the Korean national team.
“He's a god,” baseball fan Kang Ji-ho told Agence France-Presse as he lined up outside the 17,000-seat stadium, where tickets for Wednesday's MLB opener sold out in minutes. “Japanese players are not popular in Korea, but Otani is different.''
Ohtani has established himself as an unparalleled all-around ballplayer, philanthropist, and polite, if somewhat cautious, athlete. This week, he's taking on another and equally important role: that of a goodwill ambassador.
