Nearly four hours before the first pitch was scheduled to be thrown in Wednesday’s spring training game between the Dodgers and Angels , a collection of fans congregated around the practice fields at Tempe Diablo Stadium in Arizona .
The small gathering located at the heart of the four fields arranged in a cloverleaf formation shared a common goal: to get as close as they possibly could to MLB talent. With pens and baseballs in hand, some hoped to snag an autograph from a player passing by. Others wanted nothing more than to catch an in-person glimpse at some of the league’s biggest stars – and the Dodgers are overflowing with them.
Los Angeles doesn’t just have the makings of a super team – it has the potential to be the best team of all time. Following back-to-back winters featuring $1.4 billion and $465 million spending sprees, the Dodgers’ clubhouse is rife with Cy Young winners, MVPs and future Hall of Fame inductees.
While Los Angeles’ roster features no shortage of star power, no player commands quite as much attention as two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani . The soft spoken 30-year-old is the main attraction in the Ringling Dodgers’ circus, whose never before seen feats on the baseball diamond never cease to draw ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the crowd.
On Wednesday, several people who’d likely describe themselves as “Ohtani’s No. 1 fan” lined the barricade next to field four in hopes of crossing paths with their idol (I soon came to find out that the Dodgers wouldn’t be practicing at all at Tempe Diablo Stadium prior to the game). Once an attendee wearing a No. 17 Dodgers jersey voiced his desire to get his autograph, another scoffed and replied: “Good luck.”
One older couple donning Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s jerseys from their time on the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) revealed that they’d traveled to Arizona all the way from Osaka, Japan. As for why they made the long journey to watch several meaningless exhibition games, the husband pointed to his wife and said with a hearty laugh: “She’s a big fan of Ohtani, so she forced me to come to the country.”
Like many Japanese supporters, the pair initially were fans of the Angels – the team Ohtani played on for six seasons – before hopping on the Dodgers bandwagon following his 10-year, $700 million signing in 2023. As more and more MLB games crossed the airwaves in Osaka, the pitcher and designated hitter’s popularity inside their household grew exponentially.
While Ohtani is revered by millions in his home country, however, the man I spoke to asserted that it pales in comparison to the reception he receives stateside. “Right now, he’s no longer a Japanese star,” the man declared. “He’s a worldwide star.”
