It’s not always about Shohei Ohtani, even if he’s the one who makes headlines. On Wednesday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts met the press in Tokyo, where he touched on Ohtani but also his Okinawa heritage–basically none of which reached the general media.
Roberts was on hand to introduce commercial spots he filmed for the Kinoshita Group, a housing, health care and sports-promotion enterprise that began partnering with the Dodgers in May.
About a third of the presser was an advertisement for the ads. In the Q&A, Roberts touched on the issues the spots addressed, communication and mental health and the inevitable questions about Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but he also spoke honestly about his connection to Japan.
In March, I asked Roberts what it meant for him to be managing MLB games in Asia for the first time.
He said his focus was on the two games in Seoul and setting his team for the other 160 games to follow, but added, “On the flight over here, we passed over Okinawa and I had to pinch myself.”
On Thursday, Roberts received an award from Okinawa Prefecture, where he was born to an American father in the Marines, and a Japanese mother.
“Winning the World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, for the city of Los Angeles, was incredible, but the final piece for me was to come to Naha, to be with my people and celebrate with you guys together,” he said.
Although it sounded as if Roberts was holding back tears, the snuffling was apparently coming from a Naha city councilman, whom Roberts hugged before making his exit.
Prior to leaving Tokyo, Roberts said, “I’m excited to see my family in Okinawa, my cousins, my aunts, my uncles, my friends. It’s going to be a truly emotional and special time for me.”
“To people from Okinawa, family is everything. And those of you who have watched me manage, I try to treat my players like family.” “
“I remember going to Okinawa when I was a young boy, and early in the morning, with my ojiisan (grandfather), we would get into his little truck and go into bars and pick up all the bottles. His job was to pick up all the bottles and have them be recycled. My grandfather, my grandmother worked till they were in their 80s. They knew hard work and they loved to work. They taught me hard work. I’m very proud of my family.”
Although the presentation was mostly about Kinoshita’s first TV spot, he Roberts touched on how growing up in Japan shaped his concerns for mental health.
“Emotions in my culture, in the Japanese culture I grew up in, weren’t always shared and everything was always supposed to be OK,” he said. “We didn’t talk about how we truly felt. I think it’s important that everyone doesn’t always feel perfect. I do believe that mental health and sharing how you feel inside is really important, and that’s a different piece and that’s a bigger discussion.”
My effort to get this into the larger news sphere was blunted by a curt, “Everybody only wants to read about Ohtani.”
