Shohei Ohtani stokes national pride in Japan with World Series debut

OSHU CITY, Japan — In Oshu, the small rural town where Shohei Ohtani grew up, baseball is as much a part of the landscape as the farmers’ fields and low-rise hills surrounding it. The area has long been known for its beef and ironwork. Now it’s famous for Ohtani.

Local officials have organized watch parties at community centers in the area where people are given inflatable sticks saying “Shohei Ohtani — The Pride of Oshu City” to wave when cheering for the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar as his team takes on the New York Yankees in Ohtani’s first World Series.

As they watched Game 4, which aired at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning in Japan, Yasuo Sakamoto, 74, and his wife Keiko, 70, wore the Dodgers jerseys and hats they got when they visited Los Angeles this summer to see Ohtani play.

“Even at my age, I’m really awed by him,” Yasuo Sakamoto said of Ohtani. “In Japan when there’s news about Ohtani, it’s bright news. If they win, it’s going to be even brighter.”

After losing the first three games to the Dodgers, the Yankees fended off a potential sweep in Game 4, winning 11-4 at home. The two teams will play Game 5 in the best-of-seven series at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday — and Japan will be watching.

Ohtani, 30, a two-time American League Most Valuable Player who is the favorite to be named National League MVP this year, is not the first strong baseball player to come out of Japan’s Iwake prefecture, which is about 300 miles north of Tokyo. But people here see him as a “once-in-a-century” talent.

“They’re blessed with wonderful instructors,” said superfan Hironobu Kanno, surrounded by some of the estimated 3,000 pieces of Ohtani memorabilia that he has collected as he has watched the young star rise through Japan’s amateur ranks and into Major League Baseball with a record $700 million, 10-year contract.