“Reporter Got It Wrong”: Real Reason Shohei Ohtani Was Booed By Blue Jay Fans Before Silencing Them With a Home Run

Rogers Centre was bustling with noise. The Toronto Blue Jays fans were about to witness Shohei Ohtani for the first time this season. But they wished it was in their jersey, instead there he was wearing the Los Angeles Dodgers uniform. The team he joined after rejecting the Jays. The hurt was real and personal. “I was not surprised,” Ohtani said later about the loud boos that echoed through the stadium. After all, they had lost Ohtani in one of the most heartbreaking ways imaginable.

The moment the offseason began in 2023, Shohei Ohtani became the biggest talking point of every team. Fans all over the league wanted the superstar to be a part of their team. However, the Blue Jays fans became the ones who dreamt it the most. In fact, such were the circumstances at one point that the entire league believed that Ohtani was about to become a Blue Jay. 

Jeff Spiegel and Anthony Witrado of the Dodger Blue’s DodgerHeads Postgame explained the entire situation. While Ohtani facing boos is a rare occurrence, the Blue Jays fans had a good reason for it. Witrado was surprised at the boos because it wasn’t even for something that Ohtani did. “They’re booing him because a reporter got a report wrong.” The report they’re referring to is the rumor that spread about Ohtani sitting on a flight to Toronto.

On December 8 pandemonium hit the baseball world. Multiple reports emerged that the two-way phenom had agreed to a deal with the Blue Jays and was sitting on a plane flying to Toronto. For a few hours, the entire sporting world refreshed their social media feeds to get a confirmation. Then the flight landed and Ohtani wasn’t there. Just 3 days later, Ohtani announced his $700 million deal with the Dodgers. 

The Blue Jays fans got their hopes so up they were in space. However, it all came crashing down for them. While the league has moved on the Jays Faithful haven’t. They jeered Shotime from the moment he set his foot on the plate. But then the superstar’s home run only increased that pain.

Shohei Ohtani’s massive home run adds to the Blue Jays’ “What if?” scenarios 

Normally a player might get rattled after hearing a chorus of boos around the stadium. But then this is Shohei Ohtani, he did what he always does – hit a huge home run. The 2x MVP did it in his very first at-bat and that silenced the crowd. It once again gave the Jays fans regrets and a sense of “what if.” However, Ohtani was full of praise for the crowd.

“I really do feel that the fans here are passionate, and when they are, that’s the kind of reception that they will probably do,” Ohtani said in his postgame interview. “So I’m just very grateful and respectful that the fans here are passionate just as much as the Dodger fans are with us.”  Still, one can feel the pain of the Toronto Blue Jays fans. They had the world at the palm of their hands but then the Los Angeles Dodgers took it. Now the Blue Crew is excelling while the Jays are struggling to regain their 2023 form.