Among the many storylines for the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers playing in the 2024 World Series, is the expected international interest because of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Dodgers TV ratings throughout the year have skyrocketed both inside and beyond the United States, and particularly in Japan.
Manager Dave Roberts has often spoke of the Dodgers becoming an unofficial team of sorts for the country because of having Ohtani and Yamamoto on their roster.
Now back in the World Series for a second time in his career, Anthony Rizzo is embracing the heightened attention.
“There’s no bigger stage, arguably in sports, especially in American sports. This is a really amazing opportunity, especially with the following the Dodgers get from Japan with Shohei and Yamamoto,” he said.
“The Japanese market, their culture, they love baseball so much there. It’s going to be an amazing stage. It’ll be fun. I would imagine there’s going to be a lot of star power coming to the games. As a baseball player, as a fan of the game, I think this is really good for it.”
Throughout the early stages of the regular season, the Dodgers announced several new sponsorship deals with companies based in Japan.
The Dodgers and Chicago Cubs also were selected to start the 2025 MLB season in Japan with the Tokyo Series.
Presented by Guggenheim, the Dodgers’ ownership group, the Tokyo Series is poised to become the latest installment of the MLB World Tour. It marks the sixth time in which MLB opens its regular season in Tokyo, and represents the 25th anniversary of the first-ever regular season games played in Japan in 2000 between the Cubs and New York Mets.
“Exciting. It’s great for the game. I think that it was great for us to go to South Korea, and get back and start the season well,” manager Dave Roberts said earlier this year.
“I think that there’s a lot of people in Asia and Japan in particular that are going to be excited to see us, and obviously they’ve got Seiya (Suzuki) and (Shota) Imanaga, so it just makes a lot of sense. It’s a lot on our plate as the Dodgers to travel, but I think it’s a benefit to everyone.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto starting Game 2
With Jack Flaherty taking the ball in Game 1 of the World Series, Yamamoto is scheduled to start for the Dodgers on Saturday.
The right-hander has made three postseason starts thus far and could take the mound twice in the World Series if it extends to a Game 6.
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