Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Seoul media darling Ohtani keeps attention on baseball
SEOUL, South Korea — Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani says the upcoming Major League Baseball season opener against the San Diego Padres in Seoul will provide “great memories” for him and his wife, but he’ll attempt to focus on baseball.
Ohtani spoke to journalists with Dodgers teammates at a packed news conference on Saturday, a day after he arrived here with his wife, Mamiko Tanaka.
Ohtani said it was the first time for his wife “to come with me to a game like this.”
“So I think it’s going to be really great memories for both of us. But like I said earlier, I have one job to focus on. It’s baseball,” Otani said via an interpreter.
In February, Ohtani, 29, said on Instagram that he was married to “a normal Japanese woman.” But he hadn’t said who she was until another Instagram post with a photo of him and Tanaka on Thursday.
Tanaka, 27, is a former pro basketball player who played for the Fujitsu Red Wave in the Women’s Japan Basketball League from 2019-23.
The Dodgers-padres games on Wednesday and Thursday will be Ohtani’s debut with the Dodgers, and they will be the first MLB regular season games in Seoul.
In December, Ohtani signed a record $700 million, 10-year contract to join the Dodgers. He underwent surgery on his right elbow last September and will not pitch this season. He will be used as a designated hitter and possibly could play in the field.
Ohtani says he is aware of the intense international media focus on the games in Seoul.
“I appreciate all the attention. Obviously, attention is always great, being a baseball player and being able to play with these great guys next to me,” Ohtani said, referring to his two teammates speaking at the news conference, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
South Korean media have churned out stories on Ohtani, mostly in a positive tone, with social media filled with messages supporting and praising the Japanese phenomenon.
That’s not an usual South Korean treatment of any celebrity from Japan, given the two countries’ strong rivalry in sports and other areas mainly due to Japan’s past colonization of the Korean Peninsula.