Dodgers Broadcaster Compares Shohei Ohtani to Taylor Swift, The Beatles
The Beatles famously played their penultimate public concert at Dodger Stadium in 1966. Taylor Swift hasn’t performed Chavez Ravine since the Dodgers’ first regular season home game in 2007, but we’re guessing the invitation to return is open.
Ask Tim Neverett, and we don’t need to use our imagination to conjure a Dodger Stadium performance from Taylor, John, Paul, George, or Ringo. We have Shohei Ohtani.
Speaking on the Baseball Biz on Deck podcast Thursday, Neverett compared Ohtani’s celebrity quotient to two of the most popular musical acts of all-time. Skip ahead to the 5:00 mark:
“He’s the Taylor Swift of baseball, there’s no doubt about that. When the Dodgers had their DodgerFest (on Saturday) it took seven security guards just to walk him out. The hordes of media from all over the world to catch his every step, every word, it’s like that around him. With the Dodgers it’s going to be even more magnified than it was with the Angels. That’s going to be everywhere we go. It’s going to be a circus. It’s going to be like traveling with the Beatles, having him on the team bus and on the plane, it’s going to be a wild circus.”
— Tim Neverett, via the Baseball Biz on Deck podcast
Musicians and athletes tend to move within their own circles. Certainly within baseball, it’s hard to compare Ohtani’s Q rating to anyone. Neverett wasn’t exaggerating the size of the security detail around Ohtani from DodgerFest:
Perhaps the most-photographed, most-filmed area of Phoenix this week has been the Camelback Ranch parking lot. And who can blame the Japanese media for pursuing riveting shots like these?
We can neither confirm nor deny whether Ohtani can hold a tune or play a guitar, but we’re certain he’ll provide his fair share of sold-out crowds in 2024.
Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
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