The Dodgers have been in Japan for two days and have already taken in a few sights, as well as had a workout at the Tokyo Dome.

The workout on Thursday was open to fans, and the limited number of tickets sold out in under an hour, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register:

“I don’t usually hit batting practice home runs, but I felt like we had to today,” Freddie Freeman said. “That was pretty cool. This is a great experience. I mean, it’s practice and we had almost a full stadium.”

Shohei Ohtani is the biggest baseball star on the planet, but the Dodgers also have Japanese stars Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, who will start the two games against the Cubs. Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic wrote about how Andrew Friedman’s December 2023 idea of “painting Japan Dodger blue” is being witnessed in person:

“There’s a lot of people outside the hotel and the Dome…(and) you see Shohei’s face all over Tokyo,” Tommy Edman said. “You see Dodgers (gear), just walking down the street. You get the sense that the Dodgers are being Japan’s team.”

Ohtani got the loudest cheers and he didn’t even take batting practice. Dylan Hernández at the Los Angeles Times wrote about the reaction, including this quote from a fan:

“Of course, Ohtani is a representative of Japan,” Hattori said. “But it doesn’t matter any more whether he’s Japanese, American or Korean. I feel he’s reached the level at which he is not a representative of any particular country but is rather a representative of baseball.”

Jeff Passan at ESPN wrote a comprehensive season preview encompassing all 30 teams, and included this in his Dodgers section: “Outfield prospect Zyhir Hope, who is listed at 5-foot-10 and 193 pounds, squatted 850 pounds earlier this spring. (For context, a 400-pound squat is considered excellent.)”

Matt Martell at FanGraphs wrote about the late Bob Uecker’s connection to the Brewers, and how that even extended sometimes into him recording outgoing voicemail messages for some of the players. An outrageously fun read.

After the 1993 season the Dodgers what was called a Friendship Tour to Asia, with three games in Taiwan and two more in Japan at the Fukuoka Dome. Todd Radom designed the sleeve patches the Dodgers wore during that trip, and shared them on Friday.

Dodgers team photographer John SooHoo was also there in 1993, and shared a gallery of pictures from the Fukuoka portion of the trip on Instagram.

The Dodgers are in Japan, just like they were after the 1993 season. I designed the sleeve patch logos they wore back then, the first time my work appeared on an MLB uniform. Stashed away in my Dropbox, "last modified 31 years ago." pic.twitter.com/Evw7249Wly

— Todd Radom (@ToddRadom) March 14, 2025