OHTANI AND PITCHING — WHO NEEDS FREEMAN AND BETTS TO CONTINUE WINNING?
The Dodgers didn’t require two Hall of Famers and cruised to a season-opening win, which suggests they might go 162-0 — who knows? — as the team owner advertises on Fox and sponsors the Tokyo Series
It’s easy to dislike Guggenheim — or GUGGENHEIM — an investment company that sponsors the Tokyo Series and also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers. There was another reminder today, before the bottom of the seventh inning, the name flashing prominently on Fox Sports via the score line. Of course, the Dodgers were en route to a 4-1 victory, leaving us to ask if a team that hosts the opening event will finish the season unbeaten.
Why can’t a money firm that controls advertising go 162-0?
It didn’t matter that two Hall of Famers didn’t play. The Dodgers didn’t have Freddie Freeman, who continues to have left rib discomfort almost five months after playing with broken cartilage in his sixth rib and an ankle bone spur — which didn’t stop him from a grand slam that won the World Series. In batting practice, he felt pain in the same area and said there’s “a 75 percent chance” he’ll play Wednesday, but why? And they didn’t have Mookie Betts, who returned to California after losing 15 pounds with a stomach virus. “It made the most sense for him to get back to a regular routine,” manager Dave Roberts said. “That’s kind of where we’re at and we all support him.”
At least Shohei Ohtani wore No. 17 and was shown picking his nose — yes! — in the dugout. He returned to Japan in a joyous scene in which he singled in the fifth, enough to bruise Ben Brown and the Chicago Cubs in a three-run inning, and added a ninth-inning double that added insurance before saintly applause. That’s all it takes when the Dodgers start Yoshinobu Yamamoto in his homeland, then toss in four relievers who allowed no hits. In the next game, Roberts will start rookie discovery Roki Sasaki, known as “a monster” in the same nation, who likely will perform the same surgery. The Cubs will be 0-2, allowing fans to demand the hide of manager Craig Counsell even if he makes more money than Roberts.
“A very special game,” Yamamoto said.
“They were not taking good swings,” catcher Will Smith said of the Cubs.
“The confidence and conviction he has … I don’t see any reason why he won’t be in the Cy Young (Award) conversation this season,” Roberts said.
Late in the night, when a laser was pointing from the left-field stands, nothing stopped the Dodgers. “If you stare at it enough, it turns back on,” said play-by-play man Jason Benetti, who tried to be funny in what can be called a diplomatic victory.
Fifty-five hundred miles from Chavez Ravine, nothing bothers Ohtani. He is “the most talented player to ever play this game,” said team boss Andrew Friedman, and though he didn’t hit a home run as he did in a weekend exhibition, he continues to leave his mark with history creating more history. He has 20 sponsorship deals amid the bedlam, leading to endless sales activity for the Dodgers — and Guggenheim. Show up at the stadium this year and see a sake stand, courtesy of Hakkaisan.
Absorb Ohtani. Get drunk.
“It’s been a while since I felt this nervous playing a game," he said, speaking of his homecoming. "It took me four or five innings. I felt pretty good at what I did.”
With insane financial streams, the Dodgers have formed a place atop baseball unlike any franchise in world sports. Opening the season without Freeman and Betts — and still winning 4-1 — conks us over our heads. “It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they’re doing,” said Hal Steinbrenner, who owns the New York Yankees, just another fly to be swatted by the Dodgers. They are ruling the United States and Japan, not in that order.
“It felt like a home game,” Smith said. “A lot of Dodgers fans were here, walking the streets. It’s pretty cool.”
The next Super Bowl will have easier fan access than the Ohtani opener. In the upper deck, the cheapest ticket was close to $4,000. The resale services were just about shut down. “For all the fans who couldn’t make it, thank you to them,” Yamamoto said. The Dodgers used Japan to build more unity in the clubhouse, as they did last year in South Korea. Before he went home, Betts led a players-only meeting in the Tokyo Dome.
“Was just talking to the boys,” he said. “Nothing crazy.”
Ohtani countered with a sushi and yakitori dinner with Yamamoto and Sasaki. “In baseball-player terms, we call it show dinners,” Roberts said. “And they said it was like the best show dinner they’ve ever had. I just think that it's their sense of nationalism and pride in their country, that they wanted to put their best foot forward to welcome their teammates to Japanese cuisine and show hospitality. I think there's power in guys having a shared experience together. I think that's pretty cool.”
The victories will come in waves, perhaps more than any ballclub ever. The Dodgers were left to bond and carry on until late October. “I do think that an experience like this certainly galvanizes, absolutely,” Roberts said.
We don’t abhor Guggenheim. We don’t. Mark Walter spends like no other owner.
We just loathe the other owners, with 161 games to go, 11 in the postseason.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.