Thanks to Ohtani, MLB enjoys huge success in Japan and has momentum heading into 2025 season

By Canadian Press on March 20, 2025.

TOKYO (AP) — There was the crack of Shohei Ohtani’s bat, the roars from the Tokyo Dome crowd and the beeps from the credit card machines at the massive merchandise center selling boatloads of Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs gear.

It all must have been music to the ears of Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.

The 2025 season couldn’t have had a much better start for the sport, which showcased its international appeal over the past week in Japan. The Tokyo Dome hosted a capacity crowd of roughly 42,000 for all four games — two exhibitions against Japanese teams and two regular-season games — and thousands more came downtown to enjoy the spectacle of a wildly successful overseas trip.

It’s all part of MLB’s winning streak as it barrels toward its domestic opening day on March 27. The game is in solid health with a slight increase in stadium attendance and a quicker pace of play thanks to a series of rules changes that started in 2023.

“To the city of Tokyo and the country of Japan, on behalf of the Dodgers and Major League Baseball, we just want to say thank you,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “You guys were all such great hosts.

“Hopefully we put on a good show.”

It’s hard to argue otherwise. Ohtani’s towering solo homer in the Dodgers’ 6-3 win on Wednesday night put an exclamation point on a two-game sweep in which five Japanese players returned home, including four who played quite well, navigating the suffocating pressure of performing in front of their home fans.

Chicago’s Shota Imanaga and Los Angeles’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto got things started with the first all-Japanese starting pitching duel in opening day history. Both delivered, with Imanaga throwing four scoreless innings and Yamamoto responding with five quality frames of his own, giving up just one run over five innings in the Dodgers’ 4-1 win.

In the second game, Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki made his big league debut, firing four 100 mph fastballs to start his career in three electrifying — if a little erratic — innings that showcased his potential. Chicago’s Seiya Suzuki was the only one with a quiet homecoming, going hitless in the two games.

But the center of attention was undoubtedly Ohtani, who handled the massive expectations with grace and skill. He went 3 for 8 with a pair of walks, including the solo homer that just cleared the wall in right-center field, giving the Dodgers a 6-2 lead.

Even Chicago’s Pete Crow-Armstrong unwittingly contributed to the fairy tale scene, flipping Ohtani’s home run ball into the stands where a 10-year-old Japanese boy caught it and became an instant celebrity.

“You know, it’s not surprising,” Roberts said. “Nothing Shohei does surprises me. Everyone here tonight came to watch Shohei perform and put on a show. And like Shohei does, he always seems to deliver.

“It was a great moment for everyone for him to hit a home run here at the Tokyo Dome.”

The festive scene was in stark contrast to last year’s two-game series in South Korea between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres, when news of a gambling scandal involving Ohtani’s translator Ippei Mizuhara marred the series and briefly tarnished Ohtani’s spotless reputation.

Mizuhara later pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud after he stole nearly $17 million from the Dodgers player’s bank account. He was sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison in February.

Ohtani was never implicated in the scandal, and the slugger responded to the turmoil with one of the greatest seasons in MLB history, becoming the first player to have at least 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in one season and helping the Dodgers win the World Series over the New York Yankees.

The 30-year-old’s baseball heroics over the past year have made the stunning $700 million, 10-year deal he signed with the Dodgers seem like a bargain. Now he’s trying to return to the field as a two-way player, targeting a May return to the mound as he tries to pitch for the first time since elbow surgery in 2023.

It’s fair to wonder how much longer Ohtani’s surgically repaired body can keep up this pace. He had left (non-throwing) shoulder surgery during the offseason to repair a torn labrum after an injury sustained in Game 2 of the World Series and has now had two major surgeries on his pitching elbow.

But if we’ve learned anything since Ohtani came to the big leagues, baseball’s conventional wisdom doesn’t seem to apply to one of the best players the game has ever seen.

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David Brandt, The Associated Press