By GWEN MURANAKA
Meccha kusaku naru kamo. “I’m probably really stinky,” Shohei Ohtani, soaked in champagne, said to his wife Mamiko as he emerged from the clubhouse and she handed him Decoy for a family selfie.
Moments before, he was rejoicing with his teammates, experiencing for the very first time what it feels like to be headed to the postseason after the Dodgers clinched the National League West Division with a win over the San Diego Padres. With the clubhouse covered in plastic sheets and everyone grabbing a bottle, he started to carefully put on some goggles, but he lightly tossed them aside, at the encouragement of his teammates.
159 games, 95 wins and 64 losses as of Wednesday. Countless hours of training, time in the gym, traveling, watching video, nursing injuries. Pain is part of the process and now, part of the joy. Veterans like Mookie Betts, Miguel Rojas, Clayton Kershaw and Freddie Freeman, on crutches, understand all too well how moments like these have to be cherished. It’s why Teoscar Hernandez signed a one-year deal to be in Chavez Ravine.
You have to feel the burn of the alcohol from the sprays of champagne. It’s supposed to sting, it’s gotta hurt.
Sure enough, not just Shohei, but starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and interpreter Will Ireton were in there getting soaked in champagne and Budweiser, all wearing their new T-shirts and baseball caps. Watching Shohei douse Yoshi and seeing their big smiles, you could understand why they ended up in L.A. rather than, say, Toronto.
If anyone is toasting, some beer should be poured out for those on the other side of equation: poor Angel fans, with a team now doomed to record its worst season ever, who can only watch their former superstar. That the White Sox were spared a historic losing season (for now) by sweeping the Halos shows how bad it’s gotten since the big Sho left Anaheim.
A mob of reporters, including ABC 7’s Rob Fukuzaki, surrounded Shohei and he seemed his usual collected self when dealing with the media. The game was pretty ho-hum for Ohtani, from whom greatness has become expected. But he has now joined another exclusive baseball club: players who have 400 total bases in a season.
According to MLB.com, only 19 players have reached that mark, and the last time was in 2001, in the asterisk era when Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Todd Helton and Luis Gonzalez achieved it.
Thanks to NHK, viewers in Japan can watch Ohtani’s every movement, even between at-bats, and so the camera was on Shohei when Will Smith hammered a two-run home run to tie the game. What’s so great about Ohtani is he really shows emotions and supports his team. Honestly, I hope that new Japanese Dodger fans can come to appreciate the rest of the squad, not just the Japanese players, but all of them, as well as the Japanese Americans who play in the MLB.
On Thursday there were Nikkei represented on the field as well. Kyle Higashioka, who recently received his grandfather G. Shigeru Higashioka’s Congressional Gold Medal from retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, was catching for the Padres and will be there if the teams meet again in the postseason.
There is one Nikkei who stands above all others for the Dodgers and that’s Dave Roberts.
When Ohtani signed with last December, The L.A. Times’ Bill Plaschke noted that Dave wasn’t introduced before the press conference and indeed, Shohei didn’t acknowledge the skipper, saying at that time that his contract and trust was with Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and owner Mark Walter. Whether Roberts remains as the manager may depend on the next few weeks.
To me, the embrace between Roberts and Ohtani after the game was an acknowledgement of the relationship they have been able to build since then.
Roberts has a tough gig, but that comes with the job. He has to answer the difficult questions and make tough decisions. Anytime the Dodgers lose, the inevitable “fire Dave” calls start up. But seriously, how many managers could keep all of this together for what so far has been a remarkable season, that started all the way back on March 20 in South Korea?
Roberts has one year left on his contract, signed back in 2022, making him a lame duck for next season.
Addressing the team, Roberts said: “I promise you this, no team that we face is gonna have more fight than us. Let’s stick together and win 11 more games.”
Clinching the division was nice and all, but everyone knows it’s what happens from here that counts.
Destiny or bust. 11 more games to go.
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Years ago when they were still building the Metro Regional Connector, I thought that it would be cool if there was an iconic statue or symbol that people would recognize when they came to Little Tokyo. In Shibuya, everyone knows to meet by the statue of Hachiko; in Shinjuku, there is the screen at Studio Alta.
Well, of course now, J-Town is known to many as the home of “L.A. Rising.” I was in Little Tokyo on Tuesday and there was a huge crowd of Japanese tourists next to the Historic Building in the JANM Plaza. All had phones and were taking photos of the Robert Vargas mural and trying to get the app to work so they could see the mural move.
The way things are going, maybe someone will propose a Decoy statue to go along with the Shohei mural.
There were so many Nihonjin on North First Street that I almost missed a very special person. June Kuramoto, who was so recently honored in Washington, D.C., was there with some friends. Even as so many come to J-Town it is still a place where so many of us can meet, or as the mural says, “Home is Little Tokyo.”
Last week I wrote that June’s accomplishments are historic and as important to the community as Ohtani’s. It felt like such a happy circumstance that we got to take a photo with Shohei. And it’s so appropriate that she will be recognized with a celebration at JANM on Oct. 19.
In the JANM announcement, June said this moment can be summed up by a phrase that captures this moment, whether as a Dodger or just as regular folks: ichigo ichie.
One time, one meeting. Make the most of this moment and embrace it.
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Gwen Muranaka, senior editor of The Rafu Shimpo, can be contacted at gwen@rafu.com. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.