I believe he also spent more of his childhood there than anywhere else (graduated from high school in the area). I seriously doubt Bonds to San Francisco was any bit of a surprise at all, but I honestly don't remember anything about it except that he'd burned his bridges with the Pirates by that point.
In the case Ohtani, I'm not sure that any of that matters. He's going to fill seats wherever he lands. The one influence that his ethnicity might have is if he elects to play in the time zone that is most viewer friendly to Japan and much of Asia.
Heard rumors about Blue Jays and now Dave Roberts is confirming the Dodgers spoke with him. I thought we were told that teams talking publicly about that would be crossed off list.
Crazy how not on the same page with the rest of the org Roberts was. Like everyone, including casual fans, knew Ohtani’s people wanted secrecy except him?
I don't believe he will end up signing with TOR either, but 1) that was 5 years ago before he had lived anywhere in the US and 2) even then he had the Cubs on his short list, along with a bunch of West Coast teams.
There was an interesting take on this on MLB Network. I forget who was making the point, but Ohtani basically just two things. He plays baseball and he trains. The Jays have invested $100M into their spring training facility and $300M into the Rodger's Centre with a heavy focus on training facilities. There was also mention of how he seems to thrive in controlled atmospheres and that the Rogers Center is reminiscent of his home stadium in Japan.
Appreciate the Yankee fan optimism that he’ll consider east coast teams
In related news, Ohtani will not be signing with ESPN.
Got to hand it to Buster... only the greats can churn out low effort garbage articles complaining that they are being prevented from being handed low effort garbage articles because someone has the temerity to not do what Buster wants. I laughed a bit where he said "he has unprecedented leverage" totally oblivious to ... yes he does which is why he gets to do what he wants, and what he wants is to be private and not make his life a press spectacle.
Rosenthal just wrote something similar on the Athletic, calling for a transaction freeze from December 15 to February 1, among other suggestions.
Well, you know, dropping out of the news cycle during the off season works so well for the NFL and NBA. Baseball ought to give it a try!
I mostly agree, but I do think all of the Dave Roberts said we met with Ohtani shame IS silly.
I’m not sure a translated interview would generate that much interest beyond the people who are already interested. But I think the big thing is self promotion isn’t part of the Japanese culture like it is here so I don’t really begrudge Ohtani for his approach.
I don't begrudge him for it, I just think baseball sucks at elevating their brand. It's so transactional and everything is so behind the scenes. Ohtani is gonna sign, there's gonna be a press conference, and that's it. If I was ESPN, I would have done a 1 or 2 episode documentary on Ohtani, his impact in Japan, his impact in the US, playing next to Trout...There's a story there about the person behind the uniform.
I think if Ohtani did an interview it would be filled trying to dance around the questions that everyone wants to ask. He's not going to reveal anything relevant at this stage, nor should he. Question the gag order that he's imposed on team a if you like, but I'm not really sure what an interview at this does for anyone. Somehing in depth, post signing might be interesting. The FA process itself, his personal process in making the decision, how it might differ from what he's observed with other players both here and in Japan, his thoughts on preparing himself to pitch again, etc....
Yeah, could have done a whole episode on the WBC because you could tell he wanted to win that so badly and the emotion he showed after striking out Trout was more than we’ve basically seen in 6 years.
Baseball is so incredibly bad at marketing its current players, it has to be intentional. The players who hit and pitched in the past, MLB are wizards in making you give a shit about them. But the current players? Ooof. So bad.
Which I think would be more fascinating after the decision for the reasons listed.
So true. Netflix needs to do their baseball doc following a few young players. I never cared so much about tennis before I watched their doc and got to know the young players and what they care about.
Yeah, I don't get the upset over this. It'll be the largest contract in baseball history for one of the two unicorns in baseball history. I'd want it to be private as well.
The problem is it would totally screw with MLB's marketing philosophy of "You think Player X is good now? He's nothing compared to Babe Ruth. Or Willie Mays. Or Cy Young. Or Hank Aaron. Or any other dead guy that barely anyone on this Earth recalls watching play." What's strange is that when young viewers are told that their stars don't matter and aren't as good as the ones that came before it*, they tend to believe it and wander away from the game. Then MLB is like, "I think those damn video games and Tik Toks are the reason for our youth problem!"
