Years from now, people who were at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday will tell their children and grandchildren about the night. People who weren’t here will, too.
Their memories of specific details of the Dodgers’ 5-1 victory over the Yomiuri Giants will gradually erode with time. Their memories of how they felt at that moment won’t.
When Shohei Ohtani launched a ball halfway up the right-field stands.
When Ohtani rounded the bases and performed the variation of the Freddie Freeman dance that has become the Dodgers’ home-run celebration.
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When Ohtani was showered with sunflower seeds by Teoscar Hernández.
Moments are what stay with sports fans, and no baseball player, perhaps no athlete in any sport, can produce them on command like Ohtani.
His latest moment came in his first game in his home country in a major league uniform, an exhibition game against a team from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league.
Technically, the game didn’t count. In reality, it did.
Many of the fans who packed the Tokyo Dome paid hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to watch the Dodgers play. Tickets were selling on the secondary market for upwards of $600.
“So many people came,” Ohtani said in Japanese, “even though it was an exhibition.”
Ohtani used to be a semi-regular visitor here when he played for the Nippon-Ham Fighters. With the national team, he once hit a ball through the roof. However, the best player in Japan had to leave for the United States to become the best player in the world, which meant he became in his homeland a player who existed almost exclusively on television.
The game against the Giants was a chance for them to see in person what they had seen him do on the evening news.
Ohtani delivered for them.
“Big moments, he seems to do what the fans want him to do,” Dodgers outfielder Michael Conforto said.
Conforto recalled how Ohtani homered in his first spring training at-bat, which marked his first at-bat since undergoing surgery on his left shoulder.
There were many others before that, of course.
Ohtani homered in his first spring training game last year as well, his first game after signing a 10-year, $700-million contract with the Dodgers.
He homered in Toronto after he was booed by fans who were misled by an irresponsible journalist into thinking he would sign with the Blue Jays.
He homered in the All-Star game.
He homered in his first game against the Angels, his former team which refused the match the deal he eventually inked with the Dodgers.
He homered on the night his world-famous dog, Decoy, delivered a ceremonial first pitch.
He homered with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to reach the 40-homer, 40-steal benchmark.
He homered three times to become the first player in history to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in the same season.
He homered in his first career playoff game.
“He always seems to rise to certain occasions, expectations, to put on a performance,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Once again, he delivered.”
When Ohtani homered on a first-pitch curveball by right-hander Shosei Togo in his second plate appearance of the game, Giants manager Shinnosuke Abe said he recalled thinking, “Of course he hits.”
If anything, the surprise would have been if Ohtani hadn’t homered.
“Obviously, it was a big, big game for the people in Japan,” Roberts said. “But I didn’t see anything from how he prepared, his demeanor. He just has the ability, again, when there’s expectation for him to do something special, he always comes through.”
Before the game, Abe ran into Ohtani before the game in the stadium’s indoor batting cage.
“This might make everyone hate me,” Abe said, “but I had him take a picture with him.”
Abe quickly departed the area after snapping the picture, explaining that he didn’t want to disrupt Ohtani’s preparation.
Abe wasn’t the only one who received a keepsake. The majority of the 40,000-plus fans who packed the Tokyo Dome didn’t have photographs with Ohtani, but they had memories.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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