How Will Shohei Ohtani’s Teammates Deal With His Celebrity Following During the 2024 Season?
The Dodgers were already one of the more popular teams in baseball before two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani decided to join this winter. Los Angeles is the second biggest market in the United States. The Dodgers’ fanbase spans all across the globe.
Whenever a player agrees to join the Dodgers or is traded to the team, they have an idea of what is to be expected. It’s an entirely different atmosphere for player everywhere, outside of perhaps New York.
However, with Ohtani now in the fold, the outside attention has intensified even more for Los Angeles. Ohtani’s fandom across the globe knows no bounds. A media frenzy has surrounded the team since the outset of spring training.
Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes has seen the level of attention around the Dodgers fluctuate in the brief time Ohtani has been with the club, and spoke about how the rest of the team has been dealing with the attention.
“It’s shocking. No matter where you go, there are people who know who he is. Even people who don’t follow baseball know who Ohtani is. I don’t think we’ve truly felt it yet (off the field). Once we get into the season, there’s people around the hotel, but that’s not totally foreign to our group. We’ll see how it goes. There are some incredible superstars in (the clubhouse) who have dealt with it.”
— Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes, via SportsNet LA
Ohtani is the biggest show in the game of baseball and quite possibly, the most popular athlete in the world. He has transcended what it means to be an athlete in this sport and anything he does will be followed closely.
When Ohtani found himself at the center of an unfortunate situation concerning his former interpreter’s gambling debts, it became the story of the Seoul Series.
The Dodgers themselves know about being directly in the limelight, but this is an entirely new challenge ahead of them. They are meeting it head-on, embracing every second that Ohtani is with the club over the next 10 seasons.
Photo Credit: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters via USA TODAY Sports
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? Subscribe and hit that notification bell to stay up to date on all the latest Dodgers news, rumors, interviews, livestreams, and more!
