Sports
Dodger blue, Ohtani Days and World Series mania in Shohei Ohtani's hometown
It was moments before Game 3 was set to begin, and the city where Shohei Ohtani was born breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“I almost cried when I saw the injury,” 50-year-old resident Ayako Oyama said, referring to a partial shoulder dislocation the Dodgers superstar had suffered on a base-stealing attempt two days earlier.
Despite fears that the designated hitter would be out for the rest of this series, he had bounced back, and Oyama, dressed in a blue Ohtani jersey, had come to the local auditorium where the city was holding a World Series watching party.
Her employer — the city of Oshu — had given her the morning off to attend. (Oshu is 16 hours ahead of Los Angeles.) She had gotten up early to mark her place in the long line that wrapped around the building with around 200 other residents and Mayor Jun Kuranari, who earlier this month traveled to California to sign a friendship city agreement with his counterpart in Torrance. A camera team from Fox was livestreaming the scene to U.S. audiences.
As part of a rice art festival, growers used different varieties of rice to create a portrait of Shohei Ohtani and his dog, Decoy, in a paddy in Oshu, Japan, the Dodger star’s hometown.
(Hidenori Nagai / Associated Press)
“I’ve never seen Oshu at the center of attention like this,” Oyama said, clutching two blue bambams.
Ohtani is, of course, a national hero in all of Japan, his image plastered over billboards, green tea advertisements and newspaper pages.
But there is something else to Oshu’s love for its native son. He is more than just a celebrity from their city, or a rare baseball talent, but someone truly one of their own.
“The people in this region are known for having a serious, diligent and persevering character,” Tomonori Toriumi, an official in Oshu’s sports promotion department, said.
“That is Ohtani. Even when he is under such pressure, he doesn’t show it.”
A colleague from the “Shohei Ohtani Hometown Cheering Team,” the city’s fan club that Toriumi leads, took the stage to rehearse several chants with the crowd: “Let’s go Shohei!”
The first inning started out strong: The Yankees walked Ohtani. Freddie Freeman followed up with a homer and drove him home.
The crowd whooped, furiously slapping together their bambams.
::
Jun Kuranari, mayor of Oshu, Japan, watches a livestream with about 200 others before the start of Game 3 of the World Series.
(Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press)
Oshu, a semi-rural city of around 114,000, is not exactly a tourist hot spot.
The handful of hotels in the city are more likely to be booked up by businesspeople from Taiwan and South Korea visiting the nearby semiconductor factories. The streets are dead quiet and pitch dark by 10 p.m.
Among the leading local attractions is the Cattle Museum, a nod to the region’s high-quality beef. Other local specialties include a form of traditional ironware known as Nambu Tekki, and apples.
“Very few people come here,” Hidetoshi Watanabe, a 68-year-old taxi driver, said.
“For every 100 outsiders you see, maybe one or two are tourists.”
Like many of the longtime locals, Watanabe affectionately remembers a time when Ohtani was just one of the neighborhood kids: the skinny freshman who joined the baseball team at nearby Hanamaki High School, where Watanabe’s son was a senior outfielder.
A person photographs a banner supporting Shohei Ohtani near Mizusawa train station in Oshu, northeastern Japan, on Tuesday.
(Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press)
“My son looked after Ohtani a lot,” Watanabe said.
Even then, Ohtani was already famous as a “yakyu baka”: a boy obsessed with baseball.
“I knew he was destined to become big,” Watanabe said. “You could tell he had a much sharper sense for baseball. Everybody knew Ohtani was different.”
In the years since he left home — and went on to become who many say is the most talented baseball player of all time — Ohtani’s local presence has only grown.
Arrive at the bullet train station near the area where Ohtani grew up and you are greeted by metal wind chimes engraved with messages of support and a small glass-enclosed exhibit featuring signed memorabilia.
Local elementary schools serve their students Ohtani-themed lunches, including menu items like toast with “Dodgers 17” scribbled in blueberry jam. The city has designated the 17th of each month as Ohtani Day, meaning bank workers, taxi drivers and civil servants go to work in their Dodgers garb. (Los Angeles followed suit, declaring May 17 an annual Ohtani day.)
One of Oshu’s most popular events is an annual festival featuring rice art, made from growing five different varieties of rice to form vast images on the paddies. This year’s offering: Ohtani in his Dodgers uniform, tossing aside his bat after one of his 54 regular-season home runs.
Meanwhile, nearly every trace of Ohtani’s former team has been mercilessly scrubbed from the city. There is no Angels red in Oshu.
The Ohtani posters reading “The Pride of Oshu City” — plastered across the city, in bars, train stations, government offices — are now all blue.
In the lobby of Oshu City Hall is an iron replica of Ohtani’s hand, cast while he was playing in a Japanese league earlier in his career. Visitors come in to shake the hand.
(Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press)
“Well, we support Ohtani first and foremost, not the Angels,” Toshihide Oikawa, an official at the Oshu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said with a sheepish laugh.
Though Oshu, a three-hour train ride from Tokyo, isn’t exactly drawing hordes, city officials like Toriumi still field continuous email inquiries from foreign and Japanese fans alike looking to make an Ohtani pilgrimage.
“Nobody can speak English very well so it’s difficult to properly respond to them,” Toriumi said apologetically.
Some find their way regardless.
In the lobby of Oshu City Hall is an iron replica of Ohtani’s hand, cast while he was playing for the Japanese league’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, his team before the Angels.
“Around 20 to 30 people from overseas have come in the last month,” Miyoko Ishikawa, whose seat at the information desk directly faces the outstretched appendage.
“They come as a family, couple or friends — they come to shake the hand.”
::
By the time the ninth inning came around, it was apparent that Game 3 would be another win. Oyama, the civil servant, hurried off to go to lunch before she had to return to work.
The projector screen displayed Yankees star Juan Soto looking defeated.
Ohtani had had a quiet outing, but the slightly thinned-out crowd belted out one last chant for his final at-bat, groaning loudly when the ball glanced off his left toe, leading to a walk. The Japanese broadcasters had filled the lack of action by sampling a Wagyu burger from Yankee Stadium.
But Oshu doesn’t care if Ohtani wins or loses, whether he is slumping or the clutch-time hero.
“The Dodgers winning the World Series would of course be an amazing thing because we want to see Ohtani’s dreams come true,” Toriumi said.
“But even if Ohtani doesn’t win a World Series, Oshu will always love him.”
Special correspondent Momo Nagayama contributed to this report.
Sports
Eileen Gu reflects on decision to leave Team USA for China: ‘A lot of people just don’t understand’
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Eileen Gu released a statement on social media Monday, reflecting on her controversial decision to compete for Team China despite being born and raised in the U.S.
Gu’s statement tied the decision back to her passion for promoting women’s sports, and encouraging young girls to pursue sports.
“I gave my first speech on women in sports and title IX when I was 11 years old. I talked about being the only girl on my ski team, and, despite attending an all-girls’ school from Monday through Friday, becoming best friends with my teammates on the weekends through the common language of sport,” Gu wrote on Instagram.
Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China poses for photos after the awarding ceremony of the freestyle skiing women’s freeski big air event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 16, 2026. (Photo by Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images) (Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)
“At the same time, I was made painfully aware of the lack of representation – at age 9, I felt that I was somehow representing all women every time I stepped in the terrain park. Landing tricks was about more than progression … it was about disproving the derisive implication of what it meant to ‘ski like a girl.’”
Gu went on to express gratitude for the one season in which she did compete for the U.S.
“When I was 15, I announced my decision to compete for China. At the time, I had spent one season on the US team, and had been lucky enough to meet my heroes in person. I am forever grateful for that season, and continue to maintain a close relationship with the team. I had spent every summer in China since I was 8 setting up summer camps on trampoline and dry slope for kids and adults, ranging from 7 to 47 years old, so I knew the industry was tiny. I felt like I knew everyone,” she added.
“Skiing for Team China meant the opportunity to uplift others through the universal culture of sport, and to introduce freeskiing to hundreds of millions of people who had never heard of it, especially with the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics around the corner.”
Gu’s statement concluded by acknowledging that certain people “don’t understand” her decision to compete for China over the U.S., while insisting the choice maximized the impact she would have.
“I can look back now, at 22, and tell 12 year old Eileen that there are now terrain parks full of little girls, who will never doubt their place in the sport. I can tell 15 year old me that there are now millions of girls who have started skiing since then, in China and worldwide,” Gu wrote.
“A lot of people won’t understand or believe that I made a decision to create the greatest amount of positive impact on the world stage that I could, at this age, given my interests and passions. Three golds and six medals later, I can confidently say was once a dream is now a reality.”
Gu has become a target for global criticism this Olympics for her decision to represent China while remaining silent on the country’s alleged human rights abuses.
In an interview with Time magazine, Gu was asked her thoughts on China’s alleged persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
“I haven’t done the research. I don’t think it’s my business. I’m not going to make big claims on my social media,” Gu answered.
“I’m just more of a skeptic when it comes to data in general. … So, it’s not like I can read an article and be like, ‘Oh, well, this must be the truth.’ I need to have a ton of evidence. I need to maybe go to the place, maybe talk to 10 primary source people who are in a location and have experienced life there.
“Then I need to go see images. I need to listen to recordings. I need to think about how history affects it. Then I need to read books on how politics affects it. This is a lifelong search. It’s irresponsible to ask me to be the mouthpiece for any agenda.”
More controversy surrounding Gu erupted after The Wall Street Journal reported that Gu and another American-born athlete who now competes for China, were paid a combined $6.6 million by the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau in 2025.
Gu is the highest-paid Winter Olympics athlete in the world, making an estimated $23 million in 2025 alone due to partnerships with Chinese companies, including the Bank of China and western companies.
Her alignment with China prompted criticism from many Americans this Olympics, including Vice President J.D. Vance.
“I certainly think that someone who grew up in the United States of America who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that makes this country a great place, I would hope they want to compete with the United States of America,” Vance said in an interview on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum.”
Later, when Gu was asked if she feels “like a bit of a punching bag for a certain strand of American politics at the moment,” she said she does.
“I do,” she said. “So many athletes compete for a different country. … People only have a problem with me doing it because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity, and they just hate China. So, it’s not really about what they think it’s about.
“And, also, because I win. Like, if I wasn’t doing well, I think that they probably wouldn’t care as much, and that’s OK for me. People are entitled to their opinions.”
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Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China attends the awarding ceremony of the freestyle skiing women’s freeski big air event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 16, 2026. (Hongxiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Gu has claimed she was “physically assaulted” for the decision.
“The police were called. I’ve had death threats. I’ve had my dorm robbed,” Gu told The Athletic.
“I’ve gone through some things as a 22-year-old that I really think no one should ever have to endure, ever.”
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From Hollywood actors to Olympic athletes and politicians, California’s newest Hall of Fame class runs the gamut in talent and achievements.
Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis and former governor/action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, Olympic champions Janet Evans and Carl Lewis, authors Riane Eisler and Terry McMillan, chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, groundbreaking ensemble Mariachi Reyne de Los Ángeles and former state Democratic leader John L. Burton all earned a spot into the assembly of distinct Californians, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.
This class, the 19th in state history, will be formally enshrined during a ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento on March 19 as a “celebration of their contributions to civic life, creativity, and social progress,” according to Newsom’s office.
The inductees “have reshaped our culture and our communities. Resilient and innovative, these leaders and luminaries represent the best of the California spirit,” Newsom said in a statement.
To be inducted, candidates must have lived in California for at least five years and “have made achievements benefiting the state, nation and world,” according to the California Hall of Fame website. To date, 166 Californians have been selected by three governors since 2006.
Schwarzenegger, 78, served as the state’s 38th governor and last Republican head of state from 2003 to 2011. His renaissance man biography includes a career as a body builder, highlighted by his Mr. Universe titles, action film success, political stardom and even tabloid-fodder infidelity.
Curtis, 67, a Santa Monica native, is among Hollywood’s elite and teamed with Schwarzenegger in the action blockbuster “True Lies” in 1994. Her acting career dates to 1977, and she earned a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 2023 for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Evans, 54, is a four-time Olympic gold medal swimmer and Fullerton native who attended Placentia El Dorado High School, Stanford University and USC. She serves as chief athletic officer for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Lewis, 64, is considered by many one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. The track star won 10 medals, nine of them gold, in four Olympics.
Eisler, 88, and McMillan, 74, added multiple bestsellers to this Hall of Fame class.
Eisler’s critically acclaimed “The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future” examines roughly 20,000 years of partnership between men and women and male domination over the last 5,000 years. The futurist, cultural historian and Holocaust survivor who has degrees in sociology and law from UCLA said she was informed of the honor last year by Jennifer Siebel Newsom and recently was honored by the Austrian government with its Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class.
“I am very honored at this time in my life to be inducted into the California Hall of Fame,” Eisler wrote in an email. “I have worked tirelessly to help create a better world, and firmly believe that a new paradigm, a new way of looking at our world and our place in it, is crucial.”
McMillan has written a series of smash hits, including a couple that became major studio films in the ‘90s, “Waiting to Exhale” and “How Stella Got her Groove Back,” centered on Black women’s voices.
Matsuhisa, 76, know for his iconic Japanese restaurant Nobu, which has six locations in California, owns businesses across five continents.
Mariachi Reyna de Los Ángeles, founded in South El Monte, rewrote the rules of music, becoming the first all-woman mariachi ensemble that has entertained for more than three decades.
Burton, the former chair of the California Democratic Party who died last year at 92, boasted a political career that included time in the California State Assembly and Senate and the U.S. House.
“This year’s class embodies the very best of California — creativity, resilience and a spirit of community,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement. “These honorees remind us that innovation and courage flourish when people are lifted up by those around them.”
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Ali Haji-Sheikh and Shar Pourdanesh share the fact they are retired NFL players living beyond the glow of the NFL spotlight. But they also share another distinction tying them to current events: They are part of the Iranian diaspora hoping for the downfall of the Islamic revolution.
They make up part of a small group of men who played in the NFL – along with David Bakhtiari, his brother Eric Bakhtiari and T.J. Housmandzadeh – who are decedents of Iranians.
Washington Redskins kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) talks to reporters at Jack Murphy Stadium during media day prior to Super Bowl XXII against the Denver Broncos. San Diego, California, on Jan. 26, 1988.(Darr Beiser/USA TODAY Sports)
Haji-Sheikh: Self-Determination For Iranians
Haji-Sheikh, 65, played in the 1980s for the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins. He was a first-team All-Pro, made the Pro Bowl and was on the NFL All-Rookie team in 1983 for the Giants and, in his final season, won a Super Bowl XXII ring playing for the Washington Redskins and kicking six extra points in a 42-10 blowout of the Denver Broncos.
Now, Haji-Sheikh is the general manager at a Michigan Porsche-Audi dealership and is like the rest of us: Keeping up with world events when time permits.
Except the war the United States is currently waging against the Islamic Republic of Iran is kind of different because Haji-Sheikh’s dad emigrated from Iran to the United States in the 1950s and built a life here.
And his son would like to see freedom come to a country he’s never visited but has a kinship to.
“It’s a world event,” Haji-Sheikh said on Monday. “I am not a big fan of the Islamic revolution because I am not Islamic. I would like to see the people of Iran be able to determine their own future rather than it be determined by a few people. It would be nice to see them having a stable government where the people can actually decide how they want it to go.
Green Bay Packers kicker Al Del Greco (10) talks with New York Giants kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) on Sept. 15, 1985, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers defeated the Giants 23-20.
Iranians Celebrating And Americans Protesting
Haji-Sheikh hasn’t taken to the streets of his native Michigan to celebrate a liberation that hasn’t fully manifested mere days after the American and Israeli bombing and elimination of the Ayatollah.
“I’m so far removed from that,” Haji-Sheikh said. “My mom is from Michigan and of Eastern European background. My dad is from Iran. But it’s like, he hasn’t been back since I was in eighth grade, so that’s a long time ago. That was when the Shah was still in power, mid-70s, ‘74 or ’75, because if he ever went back after that he never would have left. They would have held him, so there was no intention of going back.
“But if things change he might want to go, you never know.”
Despite being removed from any activism about what is happening in Iran Haji-Sheikh is an astute observer.
“My favorite thing I’m seeing right now on TV is the Iranians in America celebrating because there’s a chance, a glimpse, maybe a hope for freedom,” Haji-Sheikh said. “And you have these people in New York protesting. What are you protesting?”
Pourdanesh Thanks America, Israel
Pourdanesh retired from the NFL in 2000 after a seven-year career with the Redskins and Steelers. The six-foot-six and 312-pound offensive tackle was born in Tehran. He proudly tells people he was the NFL’s first Iranian-born player.
Pourdanesh is much more visible and open about his feelings about his country than others. And, bottom line, he loves that President Donald Trump is bombing the Islamic regime.
“This is a great day for all Iranians across the world,” Pourdanesh posted on his Instagram account on Saturday when the war began. “Thank you, President Trump, thank you to the nation of Israel. Thank you for everybody that has been standing up for my people, my brothers and sisters in Iran across the world. This is a great day.
“The infamous dictator is dead – the one person who has contributed to deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iranians and other people around the world, if not more. So, congratulations to my Iranian brothers and sisters. Now, go and take back the country.”
This message was not a one-off. Pourdanesh has been posting about what has been happening in Iran since January, when people in Iran took to the streets demanding liberty and the government’s thugs began killing them, with some estimates rising to 36,500 deaths.
Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh (68) of the Pittsburgh Steelers blocks against defensive lineman Jevon Kearse (90) of the Tennessee Titans during a game at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 24, 2000, in Pittsburgh. The Titans defeated the Steelers 23-20. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
‘Islam Does Not Represent The Iranian People’
“[The] Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people,” Pourdanesh said in another post. “Islam does not represent the Iranian people. For almost 50 years, the Iranian people and our country of Iran has been taken hostage by a terrorist regime, and it’s time to take that regime down.”
Pourdanesh was not available for comment on Monday. I did speak to a handful of other Iranian-Americans on Monday. They didn’t play in the NFL, but their opinions are no less valuable than those of former NFL players.
And these people, some of them participating in rallies on behalf of a free Iran, do not understand the thinking of some Americans and mainstream media.
One complained that media that reports on reparations for black Americans based on slavery in the 1800s dismisses the Islamic takeover of the American Embassy in 1979 as an old grievance.
Another said his brother lives in England, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer immediately called the American and Israeli attacks on the Ayatollah’s regime “illegal” but, as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service took years to do the same of Muslim rape (grooming) gangs in the country.
(Starmer announced a national “statutory inquiry” in June 2025).
Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh of the Washington Redskins looks on from the sideline during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 7, 1997, in Pittsburgh. The Steelers defeated the Redskins 14-13. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
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Pourdanesh Calls Out NFL Silence
And finally, Pourdanesh put the NFL on blast. He said in yet another post that during his career, the NFL asked him to honor black history, asked him to stand for women’s rights, asked him to fight for equality for those who cannot defend themselves.
“I did everything they asked, and now I ask the NFL this: Where are you now? Why haven’t we heard a single word out of the NFL? NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell, all the NFL teams out there, all the players who say they stand for social justice, where are you now?
“Why haven’t we heard a single word out of you with regard to the people who have been killed as of today? The very values you claim to espouse are being trampled right now. Why haven’t we heard a single word?”
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