The sound of Shohei Ohtani’s bat hitting the ball, the cheers from the Tokyo Dome crowd, and the beeps from the credit card machines at the large merchandise center selling lots of Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs gear were all happening at once.
This must have been a great moment for Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.
The 2025 season had an excellent start for the sport, showing its global appeal over the past week in Japan. The Tokyo Dome held around 42,000 fans for each of the four games — two exhibitions against Japanese teams and two regular-season games. Thousands more came to the downtown area to enjoy the success of this overseas trip.
This is all part of MLB’s success as it moves closer to its domestic opening day on March 27. The game is in good shape, with a slight increase in stadium attendance and a faster pace of play, thanks to rule changes that began 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,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “You guys were all such great hosts.
“Hopefully we put on a good show.”
It’s hard to argue against this. Ohtani’s powerful solo home run in the Dodgers’ 6-3 win on Wednesday night marked the end of a two-game sweep in which five Japanese players returned home. Four of them played really well, handling the huge pressure of performing in front of their home fans.
Chicago’s Shota Imanaga and Los Angeles’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto kicked things off with the first all-Japanese starting pitcher matchup in opening day history. Both pitchers did well, with Imanaga throwing four scoreless innings and Yamamoto following with five strong innings, allowing just one run in the Dodgers’ 4-1 win.
In the second game, Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki made his big league debut, throwing four fastballs at 100 mph to start his career in three exciting — though somewhat wild — innings that showed his potential. Chicago’s Seiya Suzuki was the only player who didn’t do well, going hitless in both games.
But the main focus was clearly Ohtani, who handled the huge expectations with skill and composure. He went 3 for 8 with two walks, including the solo home run that just cleared the wall in right-center field, giving the Dodgers a 6-2 lead.
Even Chicago’s Pete Crow-Armstrong unknowingly helped create a memorable moment, tossing Ohtani’s home run ball into the stands, where a 10-year-old Japanese boy caught it and quickly became a local hero.
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a home runShohei always seems to deliver
“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 stood in sharp 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, overshadowed the series and briefly affected Ohtani’s clean reputation.
Mizuhara later pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud after stealing nearly $17 million from the Dodgers player’s bank account. He was sentenced to almost five years in federal prison in February.
Ohtani was never involved in the scandal, and he responded to the drama by having one of the best seasons in MLB history. He became the first player to hit at least 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season, helping the Dodgers win the World Series against the New York Yankees.
The 30-year-old’s achievements over the past year have made the impressive $700 million, 10-year contract he signed with the Dodgers seem like a great deal. Now, he’s working on coming back as a two-way player, aiming to return to pitching in May after having elbow surgery in 2023.
It’s fair to wonder how much longer Ohtani’s surgically repaired body can keep up with this level of play. He had shoulder surgery in the offseason to repair a torn labrum, an injury he got during Game 2 of the World Series, and he’s now had two major surgeries on his pitching elbow.
But if there’s one thing we’ve learned since Ohtani joined the big leagues, it’s that baseball’s usual rules don’t seem to apply to one of the greatest players the game has ever seen.
