Shohei Ohtani homers in first 2024 game vs. Blue Jays

TORONTO — After a dramatic offseason that reached its peak with a flurry of inaccurate media reports and online flight tracking, Shohei Ohtani was greeted by a loud round of boos by the home crowd at Rogers Centre.

Ohtani was lightly booed during pregame introductions, but those quickly got louder once he stepped to the plate in the first inning. The Dodgers’ star two-way player, however, wasted no time taking flight, smashing a solo homer over the right-field wall, which only drew more boos from the crowd.

It was Ohtani’s seventh homer of the season, tying him with manager Dave Roberts for the most by a Japanese-born player in Dodgers franchise history.

Ohtani’s free agency, for some reasons out of his control, turned into one of the most polarizing the sport has ever seen. In the end, Ohtani’s choices came down to the Giants, Blue Jays and Dodgers. The Angels were also very much in play, but they wouldn’t match the $700 million structure the other franchises signed off on.

Ohtani’s impact on and off the field, and the secrecy with which he approached the decision, opened up a lot of room for rumors. None was bigger than when reports surfaced online that Ohtani was flying on a private plane from Orange County to Toronto. Other reports went out that Blue Jays pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, who attended Ohtani’s high school, had reserved a Japanese restaurant in order to celebrate the signing.

Ohtani, of course, wasn’t on the plane to Toronto. Instead, it was Canadian investor Robert Herjavec, who is widely known in part for his appearances on “Shark Tank.” The next day, Ohtani signed a 10-year pact with the Dodgers.

“I was just following the news. I knew I wasn’t on that flight, so I was curious too,” Ohtani said Wednesday through interpreter Will Ireton.

Even though Ohtani himself played no part in those rumors, his free agency and the Blue Jays’ organization will remain linked for some time, and it didn’t take him long to deliver a reminder of what Toronto will have to battle against for the next decade.