Around Camelback Ranch, the Dodgers’ spring training home in Phoenix, fans of all backgrounds were wearing Ohtani jerseys and many spoke Japanese and Spanish.

The fans had been gathering for more than an hour while the Arizona sunshine grew brighter by the minute. Parents nudged their children toward the front of the scrum, baseballs in hand, Sharpie pens at the ready for autographs.

At about 10 a.m., cheers and shouts erupted and excitement rippled through the crowd like an electric current. Jogging past and offering a demure wave was Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ new two-way superstar.

It was only batting practice during spring training at Camelback Ranch in Phoenix, but it was my first glimpse of the frenzy around Ohtani, a Japanese player whose star power has remained strong despite a gambling scandal that led to the firing of his longtime interpreter and close friend.

At spring training, I met a lot of Japanese American Dodgers fans. For many of them, Ohtani’s arrival in Los Angeles has been a galvanizing moment, as the community faces gentrification in its historic home base, Little Tokyo, and an aging population. (You can read my full article about what Ohtani means to Japanese Americans in Los Angeles.)

Fans and team employees I spoke with highlighted how Ohtani’s arrival had also tapped into a diverse Dodgers fan base that reflects Los Angeles.

As I wandered the grounds of Camelback Ranch, the Dodgers’ spring training home, I heard lots of fans speaking Japanese or Spanish. Fans of all backgrounds wore Ohtani jerseys.

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Fans attending spring training at Camelback Ranch in Phoenix last month.Credit…Darryl Webb/Associated Press

“What makes our country great is diversity, and I’m not trying to put the Dodgers on the same level as the United States, but from my lens that’s the way I view it,” Dave Roberts, the team’s manager, told me. “People all over the world recognize our brand, our organization, because there’s a lot of diversity and barrier-breakers that are synonymous with the Dodgers, and that’s very front-of-mind for me.”

Roberts was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and an African American father. He said a swell of anti-Asian sentiment during the pandemic inspired him to embrace his Asian American identity and speak out on the issue.

“I manage a baseball team, and that’s what I initially thought I was called to do,” he said. “But I quickly learned that when you manage the Dodgers, there’s a huge platform.”

Asian American fans told me that Ohtani’s presence as the face of Major League Baseball was meaningful.

Steve Brener, the team’s former head of publicity, compared the moment to “Fernandomania,” the phenomenon surrounding the Mexican star Fernando Valenzuela, whose time pitching for the Dodgers in the 1980s is credited with attracting scores of lifelong Latino Dodgers fans.

Valenzuela, who has been a Spanish language broadcaster for the team for more than two decades, held court in the spring training press room. I asked him if he had any advice for Ohtani.

He smiled and waved me off, shaking his head. “No advice,” he said. “People already love him in L.A.”

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