They screamed.
They screamed and made that noise that crowds make when thousands of people scream at the same time, that sound that is heard when the home team takes a lead late in a playoff game.
Shohei Ohtani had taken the field — for a workout.
“That,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said, “was a pretty cool moment for all of us to witness.”
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Imagine if Ohtani had actually taken batting practice Friday like most of the other Dodgers hitters. Imagine the reaction of the 10,507 fans who packed the lower-bowl seats behind home plate and the two foul lines at the Tokyo Dome.
The Dodgers are World Series champions. They have two high-profile Japanese players other than Ohtani in opening-day starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto and rookie fireballer Roki Sasaki. They have other signature players in the likes of Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.
The crowd’s response to Ohtani, however, reestablished a longstanding truth about the Dodgers: In Japan’s view, there is Ohtani and then there is everyone else.
The Dodgers are the Rolling Stones and Ohtani is Mick Jagger.
“If not for Ohtani, I don’t think all of Japan would be in a frenzy like this,” said Taka Hattori, a 51-year-old fan who wore a custom-made No. 17 jersey with “SHOTIME” embroidered across the back.
Fans cramped into a nearby 30,000-square-foot hall that was transformed into a temporary souvenir store. Hundreds showed up the previous day at Haneda Airport to catch a glimpse of the Dodgers, who arrived for the Tokyo Series, their season-opening, two-game set against the Chicago Cubs that starts on Tuesday.
More than 1,000 media credentials were issued for the games, which are sold out. The asking price on the secondary market for the least-expensive tickets are in the neighborhood of $1,500.
Hattori paid 18,000 yen, or about $120, to join the Dodgers’ fan club, which entered him into a lottery for Japan Series tickets.
He didn’t win.
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Hattori settled for the workout on Friday, as he was able to purchase tickets from a friend at their face value of 2,000 yen, or about $13.
“I personally really like Ichiro [Suzuki],” Hattori said. “I was able…