TOKYO – Chicago Cubs fans take pride in being underdogs, a role that ended briefly when they won the World Series in 2016 to end a 107-year drought between championships.
They were right at home in Tokyo facing the Los Angeles Dodgers and megastar Shohei Ohtani in a two-game series to open the Major League Baseball regular season. Chicago dropped the first game 4-1, then allowed a homer by Ohtani in a 6-3 defeat in the second game.
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Dodgers fans easily outnumbered Cubs fans 10 to 1 at the Tokyo Dome. On the sheer interest level, Ohtani was probably 60-70% of the draw in the sellouts, with the Cubs and Dodgers splitting the rest.
“That’s what’s great about the Cubs, we're always the come-from-behind team,” said Zach Valavanis, a Cubs fan entering a theme bar in the Tokyo Dome complex, filled with Cubs logos and memorabilia — and dozens of other Chicago fans.
“I feel like that’s been the case forever,” Valavanis added, citing the come-from-behind effort to win the 2016 World Series.
Cubs batting practice was well attended. But the Dodgers batting practice was a spectacle with hundreds of photographers, reporters and video journalists staking out Ohtani and his two Japanese teammates — pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki.
The Cubs have two Japanese players — pitchers Shota Imanaga and designated hitter Seiya Suzuki — who didn't go unnoticed. But they're not Dodgers.
“What did they (the Dodgers) spend — three, four, five billion dollars,” said Zach's brother Alex Valavanis, both wearing white Cubs jerseys. “I don’t think they can keep up that pace, but we’ll see.”
Cubs manager Craig Counsell kept it simple. He said being a very high-profile afterthought comes with the territory.
“We’re playing the world champions, you expect that from that perspective,” he said. “We’re playing against the most famous player in the world. So you expect it from that perspective as well.”
“When you’re the world champs, you get to enjoy the spoils of that — and that’s fair to me,” he added.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts kept his explanation even simpler.
“I think in totality, there’s still a few ballclubs that share that same lore of history," he said. “But baseball, a lot of it is cyclical, and so our hope is we can continue to ride this high tide as the Dodgers.
“I just think it’s more skewed because of Shohei. And nothing against the other Japanese players,” Roberts added. "But Shohei is just such a beast of this whole equation.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb