As it is, Shohei Ohtani is a living legend. To use a baseball metaphor, he’s a unicorn.

It has never been done before, but he has batted and pitched like a Marvel superhero this season. In baseball, he is first with 39 home runs. So far he has a 7-1 record and a 2.93 ERA. In a century, people will look back on this season and wonder if it was a true occurrence or a baseball urban legend that has been embellished with each passing year.

His influence extends far beyond the realm of Major League Baseball, but he does have a sizable following in Southern California and across baseball.

A city in Japan’s far northeast may, however, be home to his most devoted devotees. a hotspot for street festivals, rich farmland, and tender meat. Oshu City is where Shohei Ohtani was born and raised.

Mr. Katsuyoshi Ohkoshi, who heads up Oshu City’s City Promotion Division, has made it his mission to cheer on the hometown hero Ohtani and spread the word about his greatness among foreign visitors. To the point that a few years ago, a cheerleading squad called endan was formed to support the Angels’ superstar.

Ohkoshi greeted me on Zoom while wearing an Ohtani shirsey; an Ohtani “two-way star” poster was just behind him; and he flashed an enthusiastic grin at every question.

The fan club was established in 2018 when Ohtani debuted in Major League Baseball. Since then, it has expanded, naturally peaking in intensity this season.

Ohkoshi noted that initially there were ten members of the cheerleading team. But once we got the ball moving, we invited more people and businesses to join. There are currently around 180 people signed up to be cheerleaders. And, in terms of Ohtani Day and the 17th and wearing red, initially it was just the staff of the city of Oshu, but now this has spread out to local businesses surrounding the city. That covers financial institutions, power providers, and electric corporations.

“Ohtani Day?” Indeed, it is Ohtani Day.

Ohkoshi and his cheer squad celebrate the Angels’ All-Star, Shohei Ohtani, who wears No. 17 by donning the player’s jersey on the 17th of every month (today, in fact). According to Ohkoshi, the idea has even reached the general public. So, if you walk into a bank or need your heat adjusted, there’s a good chance the person you’re dealing with might be dressed in Angel red. “These days on the 17th, you might also just see general fans, people of the city walking around with the 17 T-shirts,” Ohkoshi told me. And that is very thrιlling for us.

Maybe they’re re-enacting Ohtani’s latest highlight.