Letters to Sports: Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani go big in Japan

Tokyo, Japan, Wednesday, March 19, 2025 - Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani waves to fans as he leaves the field after a 6-3 win over the Chicago Cubs at the MLB Tokyo Series 2025, in the Tokyo Dome. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) — Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani waves to fans as he leaves the field after a 6-3 win over the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times )

After two games in Japan, Shohei Ohtani is off to a great start, with a home run and a .375 batting average, and the Dodgers only have to pay him $2 million this season. Don't worry about Ohtani making ends meet because I asked AI how much Ohtani will earn from endorsements in 2025? Their answer was $100 million. The Times' Bill Shaikin later reported the same amount.

Vaughn Hardenberg
Westwood

So the pro-Dodger L.A. Times is already deciding the Cy Young Award after a single pitching outing by Yoshinobu Yamamoto and two days into the Dodger season? Well, that will save us a lot of time watching Major League Baseball this year. I presume the Dodgers have also already won the World Series? On to football!

Henry A. Hespenheide
Hermosa Beach

After one game and five innings of one-run baseball, The Times’ Dylan Hernández has proclaimed Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto a Cy Young Award candidate “if he can keep this up.”

I was waiting for his gushing about a potential 162-0 season for the Dodgers … but I guess he wanted to keep his expectations realistic.

Steve Kaye
Oro Valley, Ariz.

To no one’s amazement, Shohei Ohtani homered triumphantly in the Tokyo Series. Of course he did. It’s only surprising that it took him all of eight at-bats.

Steven Ross
Carmel

I'm not pretending to be a psychic or anything, but $5 says soon to be heard at Dodger Stadium will be the 1984 hit by Alphaville, "Big in Japan."

Joe Kevany
Mount Washington

Magical moment

In the UCLA "March gladness" story there was a magical photo: Dylan Andrews, Eric Dailey Jr. and Aday Mara expressing unadulterated joy for their teammate, walk-on Jack Seidler, after he scored. This image epitomizes the best of college basketball.

Dave Sanderson
La Canada

Putting No. 1 first

I don’t buy coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s gripe about USC being the fourth No. 1 seed. The selection committee did the USC women a favor by putting them in the Spokane Regional where USC will likely have a supportive crowd instead of the Birmingham Regional. USC should sail into the Elite Eight, where they likely will face UConn, a team USC beat earlier in the season. I guess USC stands for the University of Spoiled Children.

Darryl Thomson
La Cañada

I actually started laughing while reading an article in Monday’s paper about how the USC women’s basketball team feels highly disrespected after getting a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament because it wasn’t the right No. 1 seed. Are you kidding me? No wonder people refer to their school as the University of Spoiled Children.

Alan Abajian
Alta Loma

Crowd pleasers

I watched the high school state basketball championships and came away with these thoughts. Roosevelt's Brayden Burries is probably the nation's best player. His performance at the state finals was incredible. My heart went out to Alijah Arenas, who stayed loyal to Chatsworth. It was a tough night being double- and triple-teamed. His did his school and himself proud. The Etiwanda girls were the best team in the tournament, period. But my favorite champion was the Whitney girls, who were led by Haylie Wang. For once, the smart kids won a championship. And, good job to the public schools for beating the recruited players from the private schools.

Mark Walker
Yorba Linda

So Eric Sondheimer thinks "LeBron James' presence helped bring out one of the largest crowds" for the Sierra Canyon boys' basketball game. In other words some people drove to the high school game and bought a ticket just to get a glimpse of James. And son Bryce went for three points, which means he will likely skip college and join dad with the Lakers right away.

Bert Bergen
La Canada

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Topics

Shohei Ohtani hits solo homer in return to Japan, leading Dodgers’ powerful offense to 6-3 win over the Cubs

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ESPN - 2d
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Yahoo Sports - Mar. 15
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ESPN - 4d
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Yahoo Sports - 3d
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The New York Times - 4d
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ESPN - Mar. 15
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ABC News - 5d
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Yahoo Sports - Mar. 15
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ABC News - 3d
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Yahoo Sports - Mar. 15
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ABC News - 2d
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