The baseball world is currently glued to the Shohei Ohtani saga, with each passing minute raising anxiety levels one iota.
And that includes Japanese journalists. Indeed, the decision of their national hero could change the course of their lives.
This is the case of Taro Abe, a journalist at the newspaper Chunichi Shimbun.
The latter and his family, made up of his wife and 9-year-old daughter, will probably have to move from their home in Irvine, California if the Japanese star chooses not to sign with the Dodgers or the Los Angeles Angels.
I talked to my boss and if Ohtani goes to Toronto or Chicago or another city, I'm going to move. We need Ohtani. He's not just a baseball player. He's a rock star. Young, old, they love it. Everyone talks about Ohtani every day.
And whoever moved to the United States to cover Ohtani at the start of the 2022 season isn't the only one who finds himself in this situation.
Nobuhiro Saito, a journalist from Nikkan Sports News, would leave Torrance, still in California, if Ohtani signed elsewhere. Same story with Akiyuki Shiraishi, a journalist from Kyodo News.
Moreover, the latter has already started looking for apartments in Ohtani's possible destinations, namely Toronto, Chicago and San Francisco, among others. He suspects his family will move to their new city next March. Her 6-year-old son would therefore not finish his first year at the same school.
My company told me I might go, but it's expensive, very expensive. So we need to see if it's worth moving or if it's better to just take trips. It's an honor to move where Shohei is going. Maybe we will never see such a great player again, such a great Japanese player.
Not to mention a possible change of country if Toronto proves to be the ultimate destination.
This is a little-known aspect that we don't think about while waiting for the Japanese superstar's final decision.
