By Rory Carroll
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The waves of Japanese tourists that have descended on Dodger Stadium since Shohei Ohtani joined the club this season could provide a boost to the Japanese sensation as he embarks on his first MLB postseason this weekend.
Ohtani-mania was on full display hours before a recent game at the scenic ballpark in Los Angeles, with fans freshly off their flights from Japan heaping praise on their country’s hero.
“He’s a genius baseball player,” said Kyoko Shiratani.
“We are so proud of him.”
Clad in a pristine white Ohtani jersey, Reiko Shimada pointed to another quality that has drawn fans to the slugger.
“He’s handsome!” she said with a laugh.
Inside the stadium the influence of the fans was clear from Japanese-language merchandise to cuisine that included bento boxes, sushi and fried octopus.
“A lot of teams used to get panned for having sushi at their ballparks but now it’s cool because of the Ohtani effect,” Chris Koenig, executive director of Dodgers 365, said with a smile.
Ohtani joined the Dodgers on a record 10-year, $700 million deal in the winter and despite not pitching this year as he recovers from elbow surgery, the slugger has had a season for the ages.
Swapping out his fastball for blistering speed on the base paths, he finished the season with a career-high 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases to become the first member of MLB’s 50/50 club.
The heroics of Ohtani, who is widely expected to win his third career MVP award this season, has spurred Japanese tourists to pour in despite the weak yen, which makes the trip to Southern California an expensive one.
“We’ve taken probably 10 times as many Japanese fans on tours this season as in previous years,” said Marina Fote, who has been a tour guide at the stadium for the past 10 seasons.
Ohtani never appeared in the playoffs in his six seasons with the Angels and will get his first taste of postseason intensity when the Dodgers host the rival San Diego Padres in Game One in the Division Season on Saturday.
WORLD SERIES PROSPECT LURES FANS
Playing baseball in October and the tantalizing possibility of making the World Series has sent interest in Ohtani into overdrive, Koenig said.
He praised the influx of Dodger fans from Japan for their knowledge of the sport and noted the long ties between the ball club and the country.
That history is reflected in the eight-foot-tall (2.44 m) 3,921-pound (1779 kg) Kasuga-style stone lantern gifted to the Dodgers from Japan in 1965, which features prominently at the stadium’s top deck.
Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles now features a 150-foot tall mural of Ohtani, too.
“It’s a very gracious and excited demographic of people traveling to LA, some of them for the first time,” Koenig said.
“The fact that they are putting Dodger Stadium at the top of their itinerary says a lot.”
In a sign of the country’s ongoing impact on MLB, Ohtani isn’t the only Japanese star involved in the best-of-five NLDS.
For Game One the Dodgers will send to the mound Japanese right-handed pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who also joined the Dodgers in the offseason.
The Padres roster meanwhile includes two Japanese pitchers – former Dodger Yu Darvish and reliever Yuki Matsui.
Koenig said he anticipates Ohtani’s draw only growing in the years to come.
“We intend to scale up as demand increases,” he said.
“He will pitch next year and there’s a lot excitement around that.”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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