by It is the American sport, the South Korean center. But when the LA Dodgers and San Diego Padres open the Major League Baseball season with two games in Seoul this week, all eyes will be on a Japanese superstar: Shohei Ohtani.
It says a lot about Ohtani’s singular appeal that South Korean baseball fans are as excited about his immediate presence in the batter’s box at the Gocheok Sky Dome as his legions of fans in Japan.
The 29-year-old is widely considered one of the most talented players in baseball history – a once-in-a-century phenomenon who has been compared to another star pitcher and slugger: Babe Ruth.
After six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, in December Ohtani signed a contract with the Dodgers that will eventually earn him $700m – the richest contract in North American sports history.
It’s no exaggeration to say that “Shotime” – twice named the American League’s most valuable player – has achieved national hero status in his native Japan since leaving the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Warriors for the Angels in 2017, following a path he laid out. the illustrious predecessors Hideo Nomo and Ichiro Suzuki.
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Ohtani has worn his yakyu compatriots to be one of the most talked about baseball players in living memory. Not even the injury to his right elbow that will keep him off the mound this season could dampen the prospect when the Dodgers came to South Korea for a warm-up series before MLB games on Wednesday and Thursday.
Athletes from their major sports rival, Japan, are not usually praised, South Korean sports fans make an exception for Ohtani, who responded with positive posts on his Instagram account and declared the South as “one of my favorite countries”.
“The atmosphere in Korean society has often made it difficult for us to openly say that we like Japan,” said Lee Jong-Sung, a sports culture expert at Hanyang University in Seoul. “I think Ohtani was maybe the first Japanese athlete that we can say we like. Some may consider him an honorary Korean citizen.”
A Korean post on X reflected that: “Ohtani’s favorite country is South Korea. The Japanese who like South Koreans the most is Ohtani,” he said.
Japan’s representation will not be limited to Ohtani, who will be joined by teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto — who will be making his MLB debut and is the most expensive pitcher in history — and, for the Padres, Yu Darvish and Yuki Matsui.
Ohtani’s fever has intensified since he led his country to victory in last year’s World Baseball Classic, with Japan defeating defending champions, the USA, in a 3-2 thriller.
After signing his super contract with the Dodgers in December, Ohtani turned an eye-watering financial reward into a positive verdict on his character, recommending to team management that most of the sum be paid with it in annual increments starting in 2034. to enable them to invest in more players now.
Off the field, too, he can do little wrong. A native of the northeastern region of Japan devastated by the March 2011 triple disaster, Ohtani donated an undisclosed sum to the peninsula hit by a powerful earthquake on New Year’s Day. Last year it sent 60,000 baseball gloves to primary schools in Japan – enough for three gloves per school.
Like Japanese esports athletes before him, Ohtani is being pursued by an army of journalists whose reports fill the pages of sports tabloids and broadsheets alike. Column inches have been devoted to the latest on his elbow injury and Ohtani’s dog, Dekopin.
He is the public face of multiple companies, including Porsche, sportswear maker Asics, Japan Airlines and Mitsubishi UFJ Bank. Katsuhiro Miyamoto, a professor at Kansai University, estimated that its economic impact had reached ¥50.4bn ($334m) by the end of last year, adding that it would rise to ¥64.3bn ($427m) this year if Ohtani, that was. free agent when Miyamoto’s report was published, he moved to the Dodgers.
“The economic impact of Ohtani’s success will be enormous,” he wrote, according to the Japan Times.
Sometimes “shoe fever” can reach strange proportions. Japanese television cut into regular programming to report the “breaking news” of Ohtani’s surprise announcement that he was married, and that his wife’s identity was only made public – again to general media coverage – weeks later . After he became the first Japanese player to hit the American League home run title in 2023, newspapers brought out special editions and Japan Post issued commemorative stamps and postcards. Last summer, the rice paddies in his hometown were transformed into a giant representation of his famous son.
The Dodgers came to Seoul at a rare moment of rapprochement between Japan and South Korea, whose conservative leaders have tried to resolve bitter disputes arising from the Japanese colonial rule of 1910-45 on the Korean peninsula.
However, few expected a Japanese athlete to enjoy these levels of popularity in South Korea, where hundreds of fans greeted the Dodgers at Incheon airport last week, shouting Ohtani’s name and holding up shirts. replicas. On Monday, they were out in force again, packing Gocheok Sky Dome to watch a warmup match against the South Korean national team.
“It’s God,” Kang Ji-ho, a baseball fan, told Agence France-Presse as he queued 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 Ohtani is different.”
Ohtani has established himself as a peerless ballplayer, a philanthropist and a respectful, if slightly wary, sports personality. This week he is playing another no less important role – that of a goodwill ambassador.
