In a country full of stars, Los Angeles can’t stop talking about Ohtani
On Monday, a flawless baseball day in Los Angeles if it weren’t December, Sean Teng stood on the upper deck of Dodger Stadium after a tour and nodded to the Hollywood sign in the distance.
Below was the right field bleachers where Shohei Ohtani, who has been called the modern incarnation of Babe Ruth, is expected to hit home runs next year. The pitcher’s mound will also be waiting for him at some point.
“Everything here is suitable for Ohtani,” Teng said. “The food. The culture. The weather.”
For months, baseball fans around the world waited to hear where Ohtani would choose to play — hoping against hope that he would join their favorite team in free agency.
There was the Little League program in Northern California that had offered that rename itself if he were to join the San Francisco Giants. Toronto Blue Jays fans anxiously followed a mysterious plane from Southern California on Friday, thinking Ohtani might show up to announce he was playing for them. (It turned out to be Robert Herjavec from the television show “Shark Tank,” much to my disappointment.)
Ultimately, Ohtani chose Los Angeles, a city so full of celebrities that many residents live their lives without being star-struck.
But Ohtani is no ordinary star, and the Dodgers are no ordinary team. In a vast region where it’s easy to feel disconnected, Dodger Stadium serves as a unifying force, bringing together tens of thousands of people to cheer on a team that regularly draws the most fans in Major League Baseball each season. And Ohtani is at the top of baseball’s A-list.
Dodgers fans were still beside themselves days after he agreed to the most lucrative contract in sports history, $700 million over ten years.
Los Angeles-area commuters stuck in traffic Monday morning were greeted with, “This is your home from Shohei Ohtani,” when they tuned into the radio station that broadcasts Dodgers games.
Cullan Shewfelt, 32, remembers hearing the news of Ohtani’s signing while driving down the highway on Saturday.
“I was screaming in my car,” Shewfelt recalls.
These Dodgers are a far cry from the long-ago Brooklyn teams once dubbed “Dem Bums” for their losing ways. But with a recent run of dominant regular seasons followed by quick playoffs — despite a World Series title in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season — Los Angeles fans can identify with the Brooklyn fans’ slogan: “Wait until next year.”
With the signing of Ohtani, there is a feeling that next year is just around the corner.
Ohtani joins a franchise that has long been a pioneer in an increasingly diverse and global game. It’s Jackie Robinson’s team; of Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican pitching sensation whose miraculous rookie season in 1981 helped attract legions of Latino fans who remain loyal to the team to this day; and of Chan Ho Park, who became the first South Korean-born player in the major leagues when he made his debut with the Dodgers in 1994.
The Dodgers made the signing official with an announcement Monday night, but fans had been celebrating it as a done deal for days.
And commentators compared the Ohtani deal to the biggest free agent signings in Los Angeles history: Shaquille O’Neal joined the Lakers in 1996; LeBron James signs with the Lakers in 2018; and David Beckham’s deal with the Galaxy in 2007.
A few years ago, Jesus Campos tried to get a job at Dodger Stadium to be close to his beloved team. When he wasn’t hired, he found work at the next best place: Guisados, a taco restaurant on Sunset Boulevard near Vin Scully Avenue, which leads to the ballpark and is named after the famous Dodgers announcer who died in 2022.
During the season, when business is good, Campos often works early shifts so he can run to the stadium for evening games. The ballpark, he said, is his sanctuary, the only place he isn’t glued to his phone.
When he saw rumors circulating on social media last weekend that Ohtani would sign with Toronto – provoked by internet sleuths pointing to the private jet – he became concerned.
“With that news from Toronto, I thought, ‘Damn, we’re losing him,’” he said.
Ohtani isn’t exactly a new face on the Southern California sports scene. He played six seasons for the Los Angeles Angels, who live in Anaheim, just 30 miles down Interstate 5 — or the 5, as the locals say — from Dodger Stadium. But it might as well be a world apart.
The Angels are connected to Orange County, to Anaheim, to the suburbs. In Southern California, they were largely treated like a second-tier team, while the Dodgers were sports kings. The Angels have missed the playoffs nine seasons in a row, despite Ohtani winning two Most Valuable Awards, and the Dodgers have made the postseason 11 years in a row — all of which likely played a role in Ohtani’s decision.
A towering Ohtani mural had already been removed outside Angel Stadium on Sunday. “They tore it down quickly,” complained Sam Luevano, who lives nearby and attended Angels games with his father.
He added: “If the Angels won, he would still be here. I love Shohei and it’s not his fault. He needs to be part of a winning team.”
For Angels fans, Ohtani brought more to the ballpark than just his preternatural, comic book-esque talent at hitting home runs and striking out batters.
“I loved seeing the diversity of the fans in the stadium while he was here,” said Monique Barrios, who works at Angel Stadium and received a baseball signed by Ohtani at the end of the season. “I learned a lot about Japan and its culture.”
As Campos made tacos during the lunch rush Monday, Japanese journalists sat at a table near Guisados as they took a break from working on a documentary about Ohtani.
Hiroshi Yoshika, a cinematographer, said there was no better place for Ohtani than Los Angeles, a city of stars.
“I expected him to be a Dodger,” he said. “He loves the West Coast. He wants to be number one. The best of the world.”
Douglas Morino reporting contributed.