Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that The Dodgers used an unseen video from 6-years-ago of Kobe Bryant asking Shohei Ohtani to join the Dodgers in their pitch to the MVP.
The Los Angeles Dodgers had some help from the late Kobe Bryant in recruiting Shohei Ohtani to join the team.
According to ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez and Jeff Passan, the Dodgers showed Ohtani a video package that included a message from Bryant that was recorded in 2017. That was the same year Ohtani agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Angels following his stellar career in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.
“Now, more than three years after his death in a helicopter crash, Bryant’s reputation as the ultimate competitor spans all sports, and his message to Ohtani registered the same posthumously in 2023 as it would have then: There’s no better place in the world to win than Los Angeles, and there’s no better team in baseball to win with than the Dodgers,” Passan and Gonzalez wrote in their article. “This was their best pitch—the equivalent of Ohtani’s sweeper to Mike Trout that ended the World Baseball Classic—and it suggested that even if 2012 and 2017 weren’t the time for Ohtani and the Dodgers, now was.”
For those who aren’t aware, Shohei Ohtani recently signed the largest contract in professional sports history. $700 million over ten years, though most of it won’t kick in right away due to financial regulations. Fans wondered where he would sign over the MLB offseason, and when Ohtani signed with the Dodgers, people wondered what exactly drew him to that franchise. Sure, they have had success, but in a recent interview, Ohtani revealed something else brought him there.