TOKYO — 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 to Japan, 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 deboarded 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 Dodger hats, jerseys and T-shirts again dominating the scene.
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 an otherwise rudimentary round of batting of practice. “To say the least.”
All last year, of course, the Dodgers knew their popularity in Japan had skyrocketed. It was evident in the increased Japanese media attention around the team. The spike of foreign fans at home and road 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 Stadium or on the road.”
But, Roberts noted on Friday, in an afternoon news conference before hundreds of reporters at the Tokyo Dome Hotel, “this is our first opportunity to come to country of Japan, the city of Tokyo, and actually see Japansese people come support us in their home country.”
And even for him — someone of half-Japanese heritage, who still has family in Japan, and who spent time in the country this offseason in the wake of the Dodgers’ championship — it didn’t take long to be unexpectedly impressed.
While out in the Tokyo neighborhood of Shibuya after the Dodgers got into town, Roberts said he was instantly struck by sights of the team’s brand on city streets.
“I saw a lot of Dodger hats,” he said.
With the Dodgers scheduled to play a Saturday exhibition contest against the Tokyo Dome’s normal tenant, the Yomuiri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, Roberts wondered whether there might actually be more Dodgers gear populating the crowd.
“There’s going to be a lot of representation,” he said.
Almost all such attention, of course, has been generated by the Dodgers’ acquisitions of Sasaki, Yamamoto and, most of all, Ohtani over the last two offseasons. Ohtani didn’t spend much time on the field Friday, appearing for a little over 10 minutes and doing no more than stretches and baserunning drills. But his mere appearance triggered a roar inside the domed stadium. And when he exited the field, photographers scrambled to capture his every step.
“When Sho came running out of the dugout,” Muncy said, “that was a pretty cool moment for all of us to witness.”
Other Dodgers players, however, also relished the atmosphere.
Fans right behind the dugout called out almost every player — right down to minor-league reliever Jack Dreyer, who has yet to make his MLB debut — by name. In addition to the rounds of applause that accompanied each and every round of batting practice, the crowd cheered for strong throws from outfielders, pitchers making catches in foul territory and every deep drive hit to or over the tall outfield wall.
“I don’t normally try to hit home runs in batting practice,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “But I felt like I had to today.”
Muncy described the day as a boost of energy to the team, which will play another exhibition game against an NPB opponent on Sunday before beginning its regular-season schedule with two games against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I think it was good for us to have that,” Muncy said. “The long flight, everyone’s still feeling tired from that. So I think that kind of gave everyone a little bit of a boost, just to have fun with it.”
The other thing it provided the Dodgers: Perspective — on their popularity in Japan, ascendant place on the world stage, and ever-growing prevalence even 5,000 miles from home.
“It’s all over the world,” Rojas said. “I think the Dodgers are trying to get right there with the biggest organizations in the world. I’m talking about Real Madrid, Barcelona, all the teams that are worldwide. And I think the Dodgers are really close to that.”
