Ohtani gives hope to young baseball players in Japan, and the rest of the country, too

Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. "With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible," Oebori said, wrapping up practice on Sunday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. Ohtani-mania ebbs and flows in Japan, though blue Dodgers caps have replaced Yankees caps as the country's go-to sports fashion item.