Baseball mania reached fever pitch in Japan yesterday with public appearances of national hero Shohei Ohtani and other Japanese players set to take part in MLB season-opening games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs.
Ohtani’s World Series champions the Dodgers and the Cubs are to take the field at the Tokyo Dome on Tuesday and Wednesday after playing exhibition games against the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s pro league at the weekend.
Hundreds gathered at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Thursday hoping to welcome the arrival of the Dodgers from the US, only for the team to be spirited away from the crowds.
Photo: AP
Yukiko Nakamura was among the disappointed fans who waited in vain for a glimpse of Ohtani.
“I couldn’t get a ticket [to the matches and training], so I hoped that I could at least meet him here at the airport,” Nakamura said.
More fans amassed outside the Tokyo Dome yesterday as the teams held a practice session inside.
Photo: AFP
Ohtani told reporters he was still recovering from jet lag and was quick to share the spotlight with his fellow Major League players.
“In addition to the Japanese players I mentioned before, there will be other great players who represent the world with their own unique personalities,” Ohtani said. “So I think it would be great if people could genuinely enjoy the power, speed and other aspects that are the real appeal of Major League Baseball.”
The homecoming for Ohtani, who won his third Most Valuable Player award last year, follows a storybook year for the pitching and batting phenomenon, as well as growing success for Japanese players in the majors.
Giving his surgically repaired pitching arm a rest, Ohtani became MLB’s first 50 home run, 50 stolen bases man, culminating in a World Series in his first year with the Dodgers after six frustrating seasons with the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani is joined by Japanese teammates Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, both pitchers with the Dodgers, while the Cubs have outfielder Seiya Suzuki and pitcher Shota Imanaga.
It marks the highest representation of Japanese players in the six times the MLB has held season openers in Japan since 2000.
“It’s really all thanks to the Japanese players that came before us who created the stepping stones for us to be here now, and I think I want to be kind of the stepping stone for the future generation of Japanese players to come and play in the MLB,” Suzuki told reporters.
Tallon Griekspoor on Friday stunned top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in the second round at Indian Wells, avenging a devastating loss to the German at Roland Garros last year. Zverev, the world No. 2 who is heading the field of the prestigious ATP Masters event with No. 1 Jannik Sinner serving a three-month drugs ban, is the first Indian Wells men’s top seed to lose his opening match since Andy Murray in 2017. It was a cherished win for Griekspoor, who had lost five straight matches — including four last year — to the German. That included a five-setter
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
The Taoyuan Pauian Pilots last night lost their East Asia Super League (EASL) championship game against Japan’s Hiroshima Dragonflies 72-68. They on Friday secured Taiwan’s first-ever spot in an EASL final with a 71-64 comeback victory over Japan’s Ryukyu Golden Kings. In what the EASL official Web site described as an “upset,” Pilots forward Lu Chun-hsiang on Friday asserted his stardom in Macau by scoring a game-high 24 points, with four players in both teams reaching double figures. The win was also the first time a Taiwanese franchise has defeated a Japanese team in the EASL Final Four. “I was moved
RSS