Tokyo – The regular Major League Baseball season began on Tuesday with an opening launch released from the middle of the world.
The Los Angeles Dodgers won 4-1 against the Chicago puppies in the first of a two-game series in Tokyo Dome, an interior stadium of 55,000 seats in the Japanese capital, since the United States hobby looks for a broader international audience.
There may be no more natural place for the season to begin than Japan, a crazy country for baseball whose star players have revitalized the American game.
Although the Major Leagues have been played here before, they have never presented so many Japanese stars, including Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, a national hero.
Ohtani is one of the five Japanese players that appear in the Games, along with the Dodgers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki launches, the pitcher of the puppies, Shota Imanaga and the gardener of the puppies, Seiya Suzuki.
The emotion was palpable on Tuesday in Tokyo Skytree, the highest independent tower in the city, where the League established a fan experience center.
“This is something worth being included in Japanese textbooks,” Daiki Akiyama, an Osaka fan who described baseball as his life, said on Monday, NBC News on Monday. “I’ve been so excited that I haven’t slept in three days.”
The food stalls sold hot dogs, beer, hamburgers and sweet bases in the form of baseball. People of all ages took their turn in batting cages, testing their skills against a screen simulation that tracked their performance.
The pets of both teams went out to interact with fans, and even the cardboard figures of Japanese players generated long lines of people waiting to take photos.
Fans could also take photos with the Dodgers trophy of their victory in the World Series last year.
Even some staunch American fans made the trip.
“We will do anything for the Dodgers,” said Richard Moreno, who traveled from Los Angeles, to NBC News outside a merchandise store where many articles had been exhausted.
What makes the team so exciting?
“It’s about Ohtani.
Fans packed the stadium during the practice sessions during the weekend to take a look at Ohtani, 30, who signed a record contract of $ 700 million and 10 years with the Dodgers in 2023 and is the MVP of the National Reining League.
Although Ohtani is still recovering from an out -of -season shoulder surgery, he is the designated batter of the Dodgers while playing in Japan for the first time.
Ohtani said he expected the series to “mean something not only for people in Japan but throughout Asia.”
“Tokyo Dome is where I saw my first ball game and I am happy to return here, in this situation,” he said at a press conference.
Even the member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and 13 times there
“He is one of the guys who stop everything you are doing so you can see what he is going to do … because it can be so fast,” Giffey told journalists on Monday.
Because Japan has basically adopted Dodgers as their team, tickets to Tokyo’s series quickly sold out, with many of the seats that cost more than some fans paid for a flight from the
Moreno said he was struggling to buy tickets, which cost “an arm and a leg.”
Even so, his partner Anthony Martínez described the trip as a “unique experience in life.”
“I am a little surprised that we are even here,” he said.
Those who could not obtain tickets gathered in Skytree for watches parties, where the Dodgers Blue predominated.
Japan is seen as an important market for baseball, which was introduced in the country in 1872 and is now its most popular spectator sport. Last week, the Hanshin Tigers of Japan beat both Dodgers and puppies in exhibition games in a sign that United States sport is being redefined as a global game.
Janis Mackey Frayer, Dawn Liu and Arata Yamamoto reported from Tokyo, and Peter Guo reported from Hong Kong.
