TOKYO — For a lot of the final two years, the Dodgers have felt like Main League Baseball’s Workforce of Japan.
They signed Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. They struck promoting deal after promoting take care of a number of the nation’s largest firms. All of their video games at the moment are proven on Japanese tv. Workforce officers have acknowledged their mission to “paint Japan blue” and turn into the nation’s hottest MLB staff.
However this week, over their first 24 hours in Tokyo for a season-opening journey to Japan, they bought to really really feel what being Japan’s staff is like.
On Thursday, lots of of individuals decked out in Dodgers gear flocked to the arrival corridor at Tokyo Haneda Airport, hoping to catch a glimpse of the staff because it deboarded its flight from Phoenix. (Sadly for them, partitions had been erected that stored gamers and employees shielded from view.)
On Friday, hundreds roamed the streets across the Tokyo Dome forward of the staff’s first official exercise — with Dodger hats, jerseys and T-shirts once more dominating the scene.
Nothing, nonetheless, in comparison with what the gamers witnessed as soon as they bought inside: 10,507 followers, in a virtually common sea of white and blue, packed into the decrease bowl of the historic ballpark.
All to look at a secular, routine, run-of-the-mill exercise.
“This is crazy, amazing,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned, his eyes extensive as he walked out of the dugout and surveyed the sprawling scene.
“It’s been overwhelming,” added shortstop Miguel Rojas, who was loudly applauded after an in any other case rudimentary spherical of batting of apply. “To say the least.”
Followers wave at Shohei Ohtani as he leaves the sector following a exercise with the Dodgers on the Tokyo Dome on Friday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
All final 12 months, after all, the Dodgers knew their recognition in Japan had skyrocketed. It was evident within the elevated Japanese media consideration across the staff. The spike of international followers at house and street video games. The movies splashed throughout social media of Japanese supporters celebrating the World Sequence title as their very own.
“We know that every morning, in the middle of the morning, the Dodger games are broadcast here in Japan,” Roberts mentioned. “We can tell by the Japanese enthusiasm at games, whether it be at Dodger Stadium or on the road.”
And even for him — somebody of half-Japanese heritage, who nonetheless has household in Japan and who hung out within the nation this offseason within the wake of the Dodgers’ championship — it didn’t take lengthy to be unexpectedly impressed.
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Whereas out within the Tokyo neighborhood of Shibuya after the Dodgers bought into city, Roberts mentioned he was immediately struck by sights of the staff’s model on metropolis streets.
“I saw a lot of Dodger hats,” he mentioned.
With the Dodgers scheduled to play a Saturday exhibition contest towards the Tokyo Dome’s regular tenant, the Yomuiri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Skilled Baseball league, Roberts puzzled whether or not there would possibly truly be extra Dodgers gear populating the gang.
“There’s going to be a lot of representation,” he mentioned.
Nearly all such consideration, after all, has been generated by the Dodgers’ acquisitions of Sasaki, Yamamoto and, most of all, Ohtani during the last two offseasons. Ohtani didn’t spend a lot time on the sector Friday, showing for a bit of over 10 minutes and doing not more than stretches and baserunning drills. However his mere look triggered a roar contained in the domed stadium. And when he exited the sector, photographers scrambled to seize his each step.
The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani enters the sector on the Tokyo Dome for a staff exercise Friday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
“When Sho came running out of the dugout,” infielder Max Muncy mentioned, “that was a pretty cool moment for all of us to witness.”
Different Dodgers gamers, nonetheless, additionally relished the environment.
Followers proper behind the dugout referred to as out nearly each participant — proper all the way down to minor-league reliever Jack Dreyer, who has but to make his MLB debut — by identify. Along with the rounds of applause that accompanied each spherical of batting apply, the gang cheered for sturdy throws from outfielders, pitchers making catches in foul territory and each deep drive hit to or over the tall outfield wall.
“I don’t normally try to hit home runs in batting practice,” first baseman Freddie Freeman mentioned. “But I felt like I had to today.”
Muncy described the day as a lift of power for the staff, which can play one other exhibition sport towards an NPB opponent on Sunday earlier than starting its regular-season schedule with two video games towards the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I think it was good for us to have that,” Muncy mentioned. “The long flight, everyone’s still feeling tired from that. So I think that kind of gave everyone a little bit of a boost, just to have fun with it.”
The opposite factor it offered the Dodgers: perspective — on their recognition in Japan, ascendant place on the world stage and ever-growing prevalence even 5,000 miles from house.
“It’s all over the world,” Rojas mentioned. “I think the Dodgers are trying to get right there with the biggest organizations in the world. I’m talking about Real Madrid, Barcelona, all the teams that are worldwide. And I think the Dodgers are really close to that.”
