Train to LAD Ohtani and The popularity of '11 lost pitchers per day' skyrocketed

There is a place where he unexpectedly smiles when he goes to Shohei Ohtani (30, LA Dodgers).

The sales of Chunichi Dragons' No. 17 uniform soared due to the Otani effect."

Yanagi Yuya is 17th for Chunichi. Yanagi, who joined Chunichi in 2017, is a pitcher with 44-51 losses and a 3.25 ERA in 137 career games.

He was also the starting agent who won double-digit wins in 2019 and 2021. He had a lonely season this season. He pitched 158 ⅓ innings in 24 games (22 starts) and continued to display stellar performance with an ERA of 2.44, but his winnings were not as bad as that. Chunichi was at the bottom of the Central League last year. His team batting average was 2,234, the lowest in the league. He is now regretting his performance in many cases.

He showed a good performance, but the reason why uniform sales soared was thanks to Ohtani.

Ohtani joined the Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2013 and challenged the Major League after the end of the 2017 season. Ohtani, who signed with the Los Angeles Angels in 2018, won the Rookie of the Year award in his first year. After playing as a pitcher and hitter, he became a major league star by unanimously becoming the MVP of the American League in 2021 and 2022.

Ohtani, who can garner 10 wins as a pitcher and 40 homers as a batter, has signed an ultra-large contract worth 700 million U.S. dollars for 10 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers. This is the highest amount of money in a North American professional sport.

Ohtani is enjoying immense popularity. FanFest, the first official dealer outside the Dodgers, sold 35,000 copies in total.

"The Yanagi uniform of Chunichi is selling very well. It is also said to be selling well in the club's official goods shop," said No. Webb. Due to the similarity of the uniform design.

The two teams use white and blue letters for their home uniforms. The spelling and font shapes of the Dodgers and Dragons are similar. A clerk at a goods store even explains that Otani is the Dodgers and sells like hot cakes.

"Number Web" found the reason in the Chunichi Dragons' history. Media outlets reported that the two teams' uniforms dates back to 1987. "Even after Coach Senichi Hoshino took office, he changed his mind to Yomiuri," adding that the team has also worked to reform the team's sense of duty in addition to strengthening its military capabilities. One of them is complete reform of the team's uniform. The team changed its uniform with the permission of Peter O'Malley, the president of the Dodgers whom the team had known for a long time. Players might change their mood, but they might also want to imply that the team will change. At the time, the Dodgers was closer to the Yomiuri Giants than to the Chunichi Dragons, but it seems that Hoshino wanted to show that the team could lead to victory. It was a giant complex that contained a kind of execution power."

Back then, the team was also enthusiastic. Opinions continued that it was groundbreaking. One of the main players at the time, Dooru Nimura, said, "It's the best design and I'm proud to be on this team."

The media admired, "Considering that (the surge in uniform sales) is a transfer craze, Ohtani's influence is great." 스포츠토토