SI

Colin Cowherd Pinpoints Exact Moment Shohei Ohtani Became the Face of Baseball

The Dodgers superstar helped kick off the regular season in Japan.

Kyle Koster

Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) rounds the bases after hitting a home run against the Yomiuri Giants during the third inning at Tokyo Dome.
Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) rounds the bases after hitting a home run against the Yomiuri Giants during the third inning at Tokyo Dome. / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
In this story:

The Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers kicked off the Major League Baseball season with the first game of the Tokyo Series on Tuesday. It was a big enough event to merit brief discussion on the national sports talk shows, including The Herd with Colin Cowherd.

Cowherd informed his viewers that the reigning World Series champions would not be going 162-0 this year and joked that 159-3 was on the table before focusing his attention on Shohei Othani.

Ohtani shook off some nerves to get two hits in the Dodgers' 4–1 victory and became a meme along the way.

Cowherd said that Ohtani reminds him of watching Tiger Woods because of the propensity broadcasts have to show him whenever there's a lull in the action—not that that's a bad thing.

Then, you guessed it, the Face of Baseball topic came sneaking in the back door. Cowherd believes that status belongs to Ohtani and has even pinpointed the exact moment that happened.

"The minute Ohtani parked his car at Dodger Stadium, he was the face of Major League Baseball," the host said.

That is entirely plausible. It's either Ohtani or Aaron Judge who occupies the top spot on baseball's pecking order. So maybe last year's World Series had something to do with who assumed the baton. And that Fall Classic happened many months after Ohtani parked his car in that lot of the first time.

Scholars will continue to argue and sort this out. It's a fluid situation.

More MLB on Sports Illustrated

feed

Published
Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

Home/MLB