Issue:
July 2024 | Letter from Hokkaido
Rumours are swirling that Shohei Ohtani will return to Hokkaido next year for exhibition games against his old club
When baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani left the Hokkaido-based Nippon Ham Fighters in 2018 for Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels, Fighters’ fans waved goodbye with a mixture of pride and regret. Everyone predicted that Ohtani would do well in the U.S., but not even the staunchest fans could have realized just how successful he would be.
Six years later, the Fighters continue to miss their former hero, even though they enjoy what many Japanese baseball experts say is the country’s nicest stadium. Es Con Field, located about halfway between Shin Chitose Airport and Sapporo Station, opened last year. It’s a gorgeous venue, complete with amenities such as an on-site craft brewery and a hot springs sauna that overlooks the field. Ohtani, Fighters’ fans sigh, would have loved it, and the team would have won even more games had he still been around.
But now, rumors are flying that Ohtani, in what would be an emotional homecoming drawing massive domestic and international media coverage, will be returning to Sapporo with his new team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, next spring for a couple of exhibition games against Nippon Ham at Es Con Field before the Dodger play in the MLB season opener at Tokyo Dome, possibly against the Chicago Cubs.
The rumors were sparked by a post a couple of months ago on a Dodgers’ online fan site. During a recent visit to Hokkaido, the author and Japanese baseball expert Robert Whiting toured Es Con Field. I was happy to tag along. We were given a special tour that, so I was told by my local American friend who arranged it, even VIPs don’t usually get. The tour guide kept mum on whether or not Ohtani was actually coming, although a team official at a later event where Bob spoke said the Fighters’ hoped the MLB would seriously consider bringing the Dodgers to Hokkaido.
The Nippon-Ham Fighters have, much to the surprise of some fans from other parts of Japan, a support base that is every bit as loyal as those of the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers, even if the Hokkaido media don’t produce the kind of non-stop, screaming banner coverage of the team as their counterparts in Tokyo and Osaka do for their local clubs. The fan passion is there, but it’s more laid back than the mayhem you often see at Koshien, the Tigers’ home stadium.
In that sense, Fighters’ fans will claim that the low-key Ohtani represents the “Hokkaido spirit” of quiet determination and hard work, along with a friendly disposition and good manners. Never mind that Ohtani was actually born in Iwate Prefecture. Like other famous Japanese (such as Fukuoka-born actor Ken Takakura), a lot of people in Hokkaido have come to see him as one of their own.
The gambling scandal involving Ohtani’s interpreter has done little to dent his popularity, and even his mediocre performances earn him long stretches of complimentary TV coverage. Friends in Tokyo and Kansai say it’s only natural for local sports broadcasters to play up Ohtani, but at least they also announce the result. I had to chuckle when Ohtani played my hometown team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, last month, in his first ever visit to the city. There were lots of shots of Ohtani warming up at the ballpark, and a perfunctory comment from him about how nice the stadium was. There were familiar shots of Ohtani batting, but, unfortunately for the Hokkaido media, also striking out. There was no mention of the fact that the Pirates won the game.
Unlike other major Japanese cities, Hokkaido has little in the way of major sports teams to support. Yes, ice hockey is popular in some parts of the prefecture, especially out east in Kushiro, but it pales next to baseball and football in terms of popularity. The Nippon Ham Fighters give people in Hokkaido a sense of regional pride and identity.
As Whiting has said, Ohtani’s success in the U.S. has done a lot for “baseball diplomacy” between the two nations. But it’s also had an impact on Hokkaido’s relations with Tokyo and the rest of the country.
Not that long ago it was surprisingly hard to buy Fighters team goods. You could walk through the streets of Sapporo all day during the baseball season and see perhaps a dozen people wearing Fighters’ uniforms or caps. Today, their fans are far more visible, and branded clothing and other items are as easy to find in Sapporo as a good ramen shop. If Ohtani does make it to Hokkaido next year, he is likely to discover that his old team, and Hokkaido baseball in general, have come a long way since he left for the Golden State.
Eric Johnston is the Senior National Correspondent for the Japan Times. Views expressed within are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Japan Times.
