Shohei Ohtani’s feelings aren’t hurt by chirping Jays fans
But his wife loves it when you yell at her husband
Nearly two years after Toronto got really excited by the possibility of Shohei Ohtani signing with the Blue Jays, and then really disappointed when he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers instead, the baseball superstar was greeted by still-jilted fans at the Rogers Centre last weekend.
Related: Is it bad etiquette to watch the Jays game during a wedding?
As Ohtani stepped up to the plate during game one of the World Series, Jays fans chanted, “We don’t need you,” referencing the fact that the Jays made it to the World Series without him.
It seems like it’d be upsetting to hear 39,000 people screaming about your expendability, but Ohtani—widely considered the best player in the world—shook it off.
“I thought it was great,” he said when asked by reporters how he felt about some light Toronto bullying. “My wife loves that chant.” Wait a minute, is Mamiko Tanaka a secret Jays fan? Or does she simply enjoy her husband being teased by an entire stadium?
“I just try to make sure I don’t hear the same kind of chants at home,” he said.
The World Series continues tonight in Los Angeles, with the series tied 1–1.
Related: Please let Mark Carney continue to be right about the Blue Jays
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
