TORONTO – Toronto Blue Jays brass used all of the bells and whistles once they tried to land two-way celebrity Shohei Ohtani within the fall of 2023.
The once-in-a-lifetime pursuit of the Japanese free agent, as creator Keegan Matheson writes in his new e book, “The Franchise: Toronto Blue Jays,” included taking Ohtani, his agent and interpreter on the time on a tour of the group’s renovated participant improvement advanced, full with just a few particular touches.
Three lockers within the clubhouse had been put aside for Ohtani, together with jerseys, gear, hats, luggage and equipment. It was all a part of an elaborate effort to promote him on the group.
An impressed Ohtani — whose camp wished whole secrecy all through the method — walked out of the Dunedin, Fla., facility with luggage of group gear and a Blue Jays hat on his head, Matheson writes.
Ohtani stopped to take photos together with his interpreter, who was additionally sporting some Toronto equipment. The celebrity’s canine, “Decoy,” got here working out to hitch them in a Canadian canine jacket the Blue Jays had purchased for him.
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“I feel that the presentation they gave Ohtani was extremely spectacular they usually weren’t the No. 2 group simply to be strung alongside and used as the opposite individual on the bargaining desk,” mentioned Matheson. “They had been No. 2 as a result of they virtually signed him.”
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The behind-the-scenes color and particulars from Matheson’s interviews and descriptions deliver an intriguing, memorable and downright surreal chapter within the group’s close to half-century historical past to life.
Ohtani would finally signal a 10-year, US$700-million take care of the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was a giant blow for Canada’s lone big-league group and its countrywide contingent of supporters.
The Blue Jays would finally signal a giant fish of their very own, locking up star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a 14-year extension final April price a group file $500 million. The megadeal helped soothe any lingering ache from the Ohtani state of affairs and in addition confirmed the franchise was keen to spend massive in an effort to be a constant contender.
However that Ohtani low season — from a weird Zoom name with common supervisor Ross Atkins to the faulty report that Ohtani had chosen the Blue Jays and was on a aircraft to Toronto — was the “strangest expertise” Matheson expects to have as a reporter.
“The sport that went into it was actually fascinating,” Matheson mentioned in a latest interview. “Making an attempt to function in secrecy in a world the place we wish to know all the pieces that’s happening together with your favorite group and together with your favorite participant.
“This was extra of a TV drama and the quantity of labor that went into protecting it secret fascinates me.”
The e book additionally explores the group’s early days, the playoff successes within the early Nineties, the near-misses within the earlier decade, and most of the gamers — on and off the sphere — who made all of it occur.
The tales and anecdotes will not be all the time the apparent ones.
From gamers sipping hen noodle soup at a frigid Exhibition Stadium, to amusing tales of manager-athlete dynamics, to the homecoming after a 670-day break between dwelling video games resulting from COVID-19, Matheson touches all of the bases.
“As an alternative of asking a pitcher why he misplaced or asking somebody why they struck out 3 times, this was a possibility to ask somebody, ‘Hey, inform me about the most effective days of your life,’” mentioned Matheson, who covers the group for MLB.com.
“Inform me about that reminiscence that everybody all the time asks you about on the bar, at golf tournaments and low outlets.”
“The Franchise: Toronto Blue Jays,” a 302-page e book printed by Triumph Books, is out there now at a retail value of $38.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed June 11, 2025.
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