Rant #3,665: Start

Today, the 2025 Major League Baseball season begins ...

Although it already began, when the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs played a two-game series in Japan last week.

So, the Dodgers are 2-0, the Cubs 0-2.

And yes, Shohei Ohtani--the very marketable/highly unmarketable star--has a home run already under his belt.

Ohtani is an enigma, and MLB really doesn't know what to do with him.

He could be the game's most highly marketable star, as he is not only a great hitter, but also a superior pitcher, the first such bombastic combination since Babe Ruth, who did what he did a century ago.

But the Babe became the true face of the game because he was, by far, its most marketable player, appearing in ads, movies--

You name it, and he was there.

Ohtani--and MLB--have a problem, and that is that while he is highly marketable, he speaks no English, so that kind of stifles his marketability.

Don't get me wrong, he DOES speak English, understands it, and even with a strong accent, could use the language in a variety of merchandising tools.

The problem is that it is something of a "badge of honor" for Japanese players not to speak English to reporters and the public, instead relying on personal.interpreters to get their message out.

The Seattle Nariners' Ichiro Suzuki certainly laid the groundwork for this during his Hall of Fame career, and the New York Yankees' Hideki Matsui followed suit--

Only to be outed by teammate Derek Jeter years after both of their careers ended, at one point telling the press that Matsui spoke and understood English as well as anyone.

Don't get me wrong; Ohtani has been in a number of commercials, but he has scant little to say.

Compare that to, for instance, the Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James, who is a marketing goldmine for the NBA, and often has too much to say.

Ohtani makes a goldmine from sales of his shirts and other things, but he woukd make even more if he spoke English.

This is a conundrum that MLB has had to deal with since Ohtani has been in MLB, and while the game has the Yankees' Aaron Judge as something of a substitute, can you imagine if Ohtani could be persuaded to speak English?

As it is, like Ichiro and Matsui, Ohtani has made baseball-crazy Japan even wilder about their adopted national pasttime--

Brought to those shores by none other than Babe Ruth when he barnstormed in Asia prior to World War II.

Whatever the case, the 2025 season officially begins today, with Ohtani and Judge leading the way.

Play ball!--

Or in Japanese--

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