For much of the last two years, the Dodgers have felt like Major League Baseball’s Team of Japan.
They signed Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. They struck advertising deal after advertising deal with some of the country’s biggest companies. All of their games are now shown on Japanese television. Team officials have stated their mission to “paint Japan blue” and become the nation’s most popular MLB team.
But this week, over their first 24 hours in Tokyo for a season-opening trip, they got to actually feel what being Japan’s team is like.
On Thursday hundreds of people decked out in Dodgers gear flocked to the arrival hall at Tokyo Haneda Airport, hoping to catch a glimpse of the team as it exited its flight from Phoenix. (Unfortunately for them, partitions had been erected that kept players and staff shielded from view.)
On Friday thousands roamed the streets around the Tokyo Dome ahead of the team’s first official workout — with Dodgers hats, jerseys and T-shirts again dominating the scene.
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Nothing, however, compared to what the players witnessed once they got inside: 10,507 fans, in a nearly universal sea of white and blue, packed into the lower bowl of the historic ballpark.
All to watch a mundane, routine, run-of-the-mill workout.
“This is crazy, amazing,” manager Dave Roberts said, his eyes wide as he walked out of the dugout and surveyed the sprawling scene.
“It’s been overwhelming,” added shortstop Miguel Rojas, who was loudly applauded after a rudimentary round of batting of practice. “To say the least.”
The Dodgers knew their popularity in Japan had skyrocketed. It was evident last year in the increased Japanese media attention around the team. The spike of foreign fans at games. The videos splashed across social media of Japanese supporters celebrating the World Series title as their own.
“We know that every morning, in the middle of the morning, the Dodger games are broadcast here in Japan,” Roberts said. “We can tell by the Japanese enthusiasm at games, whether it be at Dodger…