Japanese baseball fans celebrated along with their Los Angeles counterparts as local hero Shohei Ohtani added baseball’s biggest prize to his already huge collection of trophies by winning the World Series with the Dodgers.
Ohtani, who played six years at the Los Angeles Angels without once making the playoffs, secured his first major league title in his first appearance in the postseason when the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 7-6 on Wednesday to clinch a 4-1 series win.
Wednesday night in New York meant Thursday lunchtime in the Tokyo district of Shibuya, where fans gathered in bars to watch Game Five of the Fall Classic.
“I would like to say congratulations (to Ohtani),” said Shigeru Hirosaki, a 53-year-old freelance business consultant.
“Thank you for showing Japan your dream. Japan as a country has been down and depressed lately but seeing young Japanese people (like Ohtani) succeed in the world is also a dream for old people like us.”
American expats and tourists joined locals to watch the series climax at a baseball-themed bar in Shibuya, many in Dodgers caps and shirts.
“Oh it’s been amazing, the fans here are so passionate,” said Max Ginsberg, a software engineer from Los Angeles.
“This bar is like dedicated Shohei bar pretty much, it’s unbelievable. Ohtani is plastered everywhere, you cannot not see him when you are walking around and it’s just amazing.”
The fans cheered as TV screens showed Ohtani racing out of the dugout to celebrate after Walker Buehler had struck out the final Yankees batter to seal the Series triumph.
Those teammates included Ohtani’s compatriot Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who joined the Dodgers on a 12-year contract worth $325 million last year and was the winning pitcher in Game Two.
Ohtani, who led his country to the 2023 World Baseball Classic title with a win over the United States in the final, is already a huge star back home and his participation in the World Series drove record TV ratings in Japan.