LOS ANGELES — Come to Dodger Stadium for a ballgame, stay for a ballpark tour in Japanese or a bite of Takoyaki — a fritter described by purveyor Tsukiji Gindaco as “crispy on the outside and creamy inside, with carefully selected octopus with springy palatability in the middle.”
This is the Shohei Ohtani effect.
For as sensational as he’s been on the field in his first season with the Dodgers — founder of the 50-50 club, the runaway favorite for the National League MVP Award — Ohtani has been just as big for their brand and for Major League Baseball writ large, said Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten.
Of course, none of it is a surprise. The Dodgers knew that Ohtani’s value would go beyond his OPS and his ERA when they agreed to the biggest contract in sports history, a 10-year, $700 million stunner that dropped jaws from Ohtani’s hometown of Mizusawa to Chavez Ravine. Whoever signed him would earn a massive return on investment in sponsorships, merchandising and worldwide brand awareness.
“People always ask me that and I never say the numbers, so I’m not going to here,” Kasten said. “His most important contribution is what he’s done on the field, OK? He has had an extraordinary season.
“But it is true that off the field, he has brought new fans. He’s changed the mix of demographics at our stadium for games. We have changed some of the merchandise, changed some of the concession offerings. We have a raft of daily tours [in Japanese] we didn’t have before. We have a raft of new sponsors with Japanese connections we didn’t have before.
“But the most lasting contribution has been the combination of Shohei’s profile with the profile of the Dodgers franchise. It’s baseball putting its best foot forward. It’s been a boon for us and for central baseball, which is always looking at international opportunities. All of the teams share in that. It’s just been enormously positive for everybody.”
The Dodgers hope the next step for baseball’s biggest international superstar is Major League Baseball’s biggest stage. After being denied by the Mets in Game 5 of the NL Championship Series, Ohtani and Los Angeles will get another chance to clinch a trip to the World Series in Game 6 on Sunday. Millions will be watching in Japan.
That’s part of what made last winter’s Ohtani sweepstakes so compelling. Teams always build in expectations for jersey sales, tickets and other marketing opportunities when they pursue superstar free agents, but given his unique brilliance as an MVP Award contender as a hitter and a Cy Young Award contender as a pitcher, plus his unrivaled international appeal, Ohtani was unlike any free agent the sport had ever seen.
The Dodgers saw plenty of projections of what Ohtani could bring in and made their bid accordingly. They turned out to be wrong.
“In retrospect, maybe we should have seen all of this, but we were being conservative about it,” Kasten said. “He knew it was going to be great. It’s gone past great.”
It’s reflected in the ratings. According to MLB, Game 5 of the Dodgers-Padres NL Division Series, starring Ohtani plus a starting pitching matchup of L.A.’s Yoshinobu Yamamoto against San Diego’s Yu Darvish, one of Ohtani’s boyhood idols, was the most-watched MLB postseason game ever in Japan, with 12.9 million viewers.
“I’m sure it’s not easy for the people in Japan to be able to watch these games because of the time difference,” Ohtani said. “I hope to continue to perform well as well for the fans in Japan.”
Said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts: “One of our guys told me how many eyeballs were watching that Game 5, which is kind of mind-blowing. It’s good for all of us.”
He meant all of baseball, since he was in a room with officials from MLB and sports media from around the world.
But it’s all been especially good for the Dodgers.
“I think this is the 100th [percentile] outcome with Shohei,” Roberts said. “That’s just speaking on the field, in the clubhouse. I can’t imagine what he’s — I can’t imagine what he’s doing outside of our game, on the business side.
“But as far as on the baseball field, between the lines, I just couldn’t have imagined any better season. And what a great person and teammate, too.”
Kasten feels that Ohtani and the Dodgers — both inside the clubhouse and in the front office — came together during the team’s season-opening series in South Korea. Club officials cemented Ohtani’s trust and got his sense of humor, Kasten said. Teammates mention the humor, too.
“He’s just a regular dude, just like you and me. He just has a superpower that you and me can’t do,” said Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts. “That’s pretty much it. But he’s a normal dude, goes about his work just like everyone else.
“I wish I could explain something he does different, but he doesn’t do anything different.”
Asked to describe Ohtani’s presence, Betts said, “He has little one-liners through conversations. Sometimes when we start talking, it may get a little too fast. But when he understands it, he has little one-liners that he’ll come out of left field with. Other than that, Sho’s pretty cool, calm, collected. He just kind of sits and chills and does his thing.”
For the Dodgers, the pieces fit.
“We have stars in our locker room. We have All-Stars and future Hall of Famers. And they all love him,” Kasten said. “It’s a real testament to him that he has this kind of personality along with this kind of talent.
“I get the routine question a lot, ‘Have you ever seen anything like this?’ And of course, the answer is no. There’s never been anyone quite like this.”
