Shohei Ohtani has a tendency to drop jaws when he steps onto the baseball diamond.
And jaws, this time of A-list celebrities, were on the floor on Opening Day during the Los Angeles Dodgers’ game against the Detroit Tigers when Ohtani stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning at Dodger Stadium.
Facing Tigers righthander Brenan Hanifee Thursday, Ohtani worked the count full, then Hanifee delivered a 95-MPH sinker that caught too much of the plate. Ohtani proceeded to crush the ball the other way for a towering, opposite field home run.
And then the ESPN broadcast panned to Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks, whose astonished face expression said it all. Fellow actor Rob Lowe looked equally gobsmacked. Then, there was Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, who could only smile as he exchanged high fives with those seated near him.
All were entirely reasonable reactions to an Ohtani home run.
The homer was Ohtani’s second of the year, with the first coming in Japan during the Tokyo Series. The Dodgers superstar went 2-for-4 with the dinger and a pair of runs scored in the Dodgers’ 5-4 win over Detroit.
