OSHU, Japan —
It was moments earlier than Sport 3 was set to start, and town the place Shohei Ohtani was born breathed a collective sigh of reduction.
“I almost cried when I saw the injury,” 50-year-old resident Ayako Oyama mentioned, referring to a partial shoulder dislocation the Dodgers celebrity had suffered on a base-stealing try two days earlier.
Regardless of fears that the designated hitter could be out for the remainder of this collection, he had bounced again, and Oyama, wearing a blue Ohtani jersey, had come to the native auditorium the place town was holding a World Collection watching get together.
Jun Kuranari, mayor of Oshu, Japan, watches a livestream with about 200 others earlier than the beginning of Sport 3 of the World Collection.
(Eugene Hoshiko / Related Press)
Her employer — town of Oshu — had given her the morning off to attend. (Oshu is 16 hours forward of Los Angeles.) She had gotten up early to mark her place within the lengthy line that wrapped across the constructing with round 200 different residents and Mayor Jun Kuranari, who earlier this month traveled to California to signal a friendship metropolis settlement together with his counterpart in Torrance. A digicam crew from Fox was livestreaming the scene to U.S. audiences.
“I’ve never seen Oshu at the center of attention like this,” Oyama mentioned, clutching two blue bambams.
However there’s something else to Oshu’s love for its native son. He’s greater than only a superstar from their metropolis, or a uncommon baseball expertise, however somebody actually certainly one of their very own.
“The people in this region are known for having a serious, diligent and persevering character,” Tomonori Toriumi, an official in Oshu’s sports activities promotion division, mentioned.
“That is Ohtani. Even when he is under such pressure, he doesn’t show it.”
A colleague from the “Shohei Ohtani Hometown Cheering Team,” town’s fan membership that Toriumi leads, took the stage to rehearse a number of chants with the group: “Let’s go Shohei!”
The primary inning began out robust: The Yankees walked Ohtani. Freddie Freeman adopted up with a homer and drove him house.
The gang whooped, furiously slapping collectively their bambams.
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Oshu, a semi-rural metropolis of round 114,000, isn’t precisely a vacationer sizzling spot.
The handful of motels within the metropolis usually tend to be booked up by businesspeople from Taiwan and South Korea visiting the close by semiconductor factories. The streets are useless quiet and pitch darkish by 10 p.m.
Among the many main native sights is the Cattle Museum, a nod to the area’s high-quality beef. Different native specialties embody a type of conventional ironware referred to as Nambu Tekki, and apples.
“Very few people come here,” Hidetoshi Watanabe, a 68-year-old taxi driver, mentioned.
“For every 100 outsiders you see, maybe one or two are tourists.”
Like lots of the longtime locals, Watanabe affectionately remembers a time when Ohtani was simply one of many neighborhood children: the thin freshman who joined the baseball crew at close by Hanamaki Excessive College, the place Watanabe’s son was a senior outfielder.
An individual pictures a banner supporting Shohei Ohtani close to Mizusawa prepare station in Oshu, northeastern Japan, on Tuesday.
(Eugene Hoshiko / Related Press)
“My son looked after Ohtani a lot,” Watanabe mentioned.
Even then, Ohtani was already well-known as a “yakyu baka”: a boy obsessive about baseball.
“I knew he was destined to become big,” Watanabe mentioned. “You could tell he had a much sharper sense for baseball. Everybody knew Ohtani was different.”
Within the years since he left house — and went on to turn out to be who many say is essentially the most gifted baseball participant of all time — Ohtani’s native presence has solely grown.
Arrive on the bullet prepare station close to the realm the place Ohtani grew up and you might be greeted by steel wind chimes engraved with messages of help and a small glass-enclosed exhibit that includes signed memorabilia.
Native elementary faculties serve their college students Ohtani-themed lunches, together with menu objects like toast with “Dodgers 17” scribbled in blueberry jam. Town has designated the seventeenth of every month as Ohtani Day, which means financial institution employees, taxi drivers and civil servants go to work of their Dodgers garb. (Los Angeles adopted go well with, declaring Might 17 an annual Ohtani day.)
Within the foyer of Oshu Metropolis Corridor is an iron reproduction of Ohtani’s hand, solid whereas he was taking part in in a Japanese league earlier in his profession. Guests are available to shake the hand.
(Eugene Hoshiko / Related Press)
Considered one of Oshu’s hottest occasions is an annual pageant that includes rice artwork, comprised of rising 5 totally different types of rice to kind huge pictures on the farmland. This 12 months’s providing: Ohtani in his Dodgers uniform, tossing apart his bat after certainly one of his 54 regular-season house runs.
In the meantime, almost each hint of Ohtani’s former crew has been mercilessly scrubbed from town. There isn’t any Angels pink in Oshu.
The Ohtani posters studying “The Pride of Oshu City” — plastered throughout town, in bars, prepare stations, authorities workplaces — are actually all blue.
“Well, we support Ohtani first and foremost, not the Angels,” Toshihide Oikawa, an official on the Oshu Chamber of Commerce and Business, mentioned with a sheepish snigger.
“Nobody can speak English very well so it’s difficult to properly respond to them,” Toriumi mentioned apologetically.
Some discover their means regardless.
Within the foyer of Oshu Metropolis Corridor is an iron reproduction of Ohtani’s hand, solid whereas he was taking part in for the Japanese league’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, his crew earlier than the Angels.
“Around 20 to 30 people from overseas have come in the last month,” Miyoko Ishikawa, whose seat on the info desk immediately faces the outstretched appendage.
“They come as a family, couple or friends — they come to shake the hand.”
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By the point the ninth inning got here round, it was obvious that Sport 3 could be one other win. Oyama, the civil servant, hurried off to go to lunch earlier than she needed to return to work.
The projector display screen displayed Yankees star Juan Soto wanting defeated.
Ohtani had had a quiet outing, however the barely thinned-out crowd belted out one final chant for his closing at-bat, groaning loudly when the ball glanced off his left toe, resulting in a stroll. The Japanese broadcasters had crammed the dearth of motion by sampling a Wagyu burger from Yankee Stadium.
However Oshu doesn’t care if Ohtani wins or loses, whether or not he’s slumping or the clutch-time hero.
“The Dodgers winning the World Series would of course be an amazing thing because we want to see Ohtani’s dreams come true,” Toriumi mentioned.
“But even if Ohtani doesn’t win a World Series, Oshu will always love him.”
Particular correspondent Momo Nagayama contributed to this report.
