TORONTO — There were more than a few selfie sticks in the air with cameras set on the superstar. A few people stood on stools to get a view with their TV cameras. And then, an audible bang happened as a member of the media fell off the too small box he was standing on to try to get his best look at the player everyone was clamouring to see and hear.
The Shohei Ohtani show is here in Toronto, sports fans. Yes, he actually boarded a plane to Toronto, and he’s here for the Fall Classic that kicks off on Friday with Game 1 at the Rogers Centre.
When Ohtani heard that big bang as the camera guy fell to the floor, mid-interview, a look of shock registered on his face. Then as he realized the man was OK, Ohtani kept answering questions.
As soon as media were allowed in the room to interview the Dodgers for 45 minutes on Thursday afternoon, a good 60 people bee-lined right for the 31-year-old from Japan. Some ran to get there first. Some gave up when they got there because they couldn’t get close enough to see or hear him. Others bumped and apologized as they tried to get closer. And the crowd didn’t thin out the entire time Ohtani was present.
“That must be Sho down there,” said Dodgers outfielder Alex Call, looking at the sea of media down the way from where he was sitting. “That’s pretty normal for him.”
“If there’s a rock star type of fandom in sports, he is that,” added L.A. pitcher, Michael Kopech. “Athletes are usually based around a team, but there are certain players that stand above not just the team, but an entire organization, like MLB itself, and Shohei is that player. I think none of us have ever seen anything like this, and then he’s only getting better, so it’s only becoming more.”
Of the accredited media here in Toronto to cover the World Series, there are 109 from Japan, according to MLB. Many questions Ohtani answered didn’t require the translator in tow, asked and answered in Japanese.
Ohtani isn’t a loud talker, which didn’t benefit the steady sea of reporters clamouring for photos and video and quotes as he sat behind a tiny table for 20 minutes. Ohtani’s was the only table that had extra security measures around it — ropes set up so you couldn’t get right flush with the table, like you could with fellow all-stars like Freddie Freeman and Will Smith, whose crowds of media were petite compared to Ohtani’s.
“It’s obviously very deserved,” Call said of all the attention around No. 17. “He is the greatest player that I’ve ever seen. It’s something I’ll for sure tell my kids, my grandkids, that I played with Shohei, that we were teammates, that we were in the same dugout.”
In Game 4 of the ALDS to complete the sweep of Milwaukee, Ohtani famously put up a performance for the ages, pitching six scoreless innings, striking out 10 and hitting three home runs. “He basically won the game by himself,” said Kopech, who pointed out the last time he saw an individual performance like that was in Little League. “But that’s a Major League Baseball game in the post-season against one of the best teams in the world this year and to just make it look like — I mean, it was utter dominance,” he said. “There’s not really words for something like that. I think it’s the best post-season game ever played.”
On this Dodgers team replete with stars, a team that generates a lot of attention, Ohtani is at another level. When he took batting practice to end L.A’s workout around 8:30 p.m. on Monday, there were still about 100 media members present, most with cameras, recording his every move. The reception for Ohtani is huge. And there’s no question it will be, too, from Blue Jays fans as they greet the superstar for Games 1 and 2 of the World Series at home.
“He gets booed every time we’re on the road in the post-season,” Kopech said.
“I’m sure they’ll boo him and then he’ll probably hit a 450-foot home run and then they’ll boo him again,” added Dodgers pitcher Justin Wrobleski. “That’s what happens everywhere we go.”
In the Dodgers dugout, there’s a saying every time Ohtani is booed. “I’ll paraphrase slightly,” said Kopech, wanting to spare all our eyes and ears. “It’s: ‘They only boo the best.” He acknowledged there’s a word or two before “best,” but wasn’t going to say those words aloud, even when told they’d be starred out in print.
Those boos will come early Friday since Ohtani will be the first batter that 22-year-old rookie pitcher Trey Yesavage will face in Game 1 of the Fall Classic.
Yesavage faced lots of star players against the Yankees in the ALDS and the Seattle Mariners in the ALCS, but this Dodgers lineup, as Blue Jays manager John Schneider pointed out, presents a bigger challenge.
“They have three Hall of Famers at the top of their lineup, so you got to pick your poison a little bit,” said Schneider, before keying in specifically on Ohtani. “But you also have to understand that, you look at Game 4 of the NLCS, I think we’re talking about a totally different kind of animal here that can do things on the field that not many people can do, with all the respect in the world for Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh. So we’ll be mindful, I do know that, and we’ll try to give him as many different looks as we can.”
There was a time that many in Toronto believed Ohtani would be part of the team here, wearing a Blue Jays uniform. In December 2023, rumours were aplenty that Ohtani was flying to Toronto let Canada’s only MLB team know he wanted to join them. It was not so.
“When we met with him, you felt good about it, and you felt good about the feedback he was giving about our organization and an opportunity here,” Schneider said.
“He’s a great player. I’ll say it again: I hope he brought his hat — the Blue Jays hat that he took from us in our meeting, I hope he brought it back finally, and the jacket for Decoy. It’s like, give us our stuff back already,” the manager added, with a smile.
Asked about that Blue Jays hat during his availability, Ohtani nodded and said he still has it. “It’s in my garage,” he said. Perfect.
Twenty minutes in to the Dodgers’ media availability, everyone was told: “Last question!” for Ohtani. He was asked what the biggest challenge was in facing the Blue Jays.
“The Blue Jays are the team with the most momentum and they’re also very talented,” Ohtani said, through a translator. “So my job, our job, is to ensure that we win the first couple games here so that we can stop their momentum and head back to L.A.”
And with that, the shortest interview of the day was over and Ohtani disappeared behind a curtain right behind him.
Later Thursday, after he threw in the bullpen, just before 8:30 p.m. ET, Ohtani came out for a rare session of batting practice. He hit more than a few moonshots. One hit the scoreboard in centre left field. Another smacked the level of excellence, right near Dave Stieb’s name.
Blue Jays utility man Davis Schneider likes to emulate the batting stances of the game’s biggest stars, and he does Ohtani’s “all the time in practice,” he said. “But never in a game. He has a unique stance, and he’s one of a kind. He’s so strong and so unique.”
Still, as Schneider pointed out, though Ohtani is a generational talent, maybe we ought to pump the brakes a little.
“He’s a really good baseball player, and obviously people idolize him, but he’s a human being,” Schneider said, with a shrug. “He puts on his pants just like me, at the end of the day.”
Well, you sure wouldn’t have guessed it if you saw the crowds around the guy on the eve of the World Series.
