The fact that Shohei Otani (29, Los Angeles Angels), who led the Japanese baseball team to victory in the WBC (World Baseball Classic), rode a Sonata of Hyundai Motor Company in the early days of entering the United States became a hot topic again online in Korea on the 26th.
Ohtani gained explosive popularity as a pitcher and hitter for the Japanese national team in this WBC match. He is evaluated as perfect in all aspects, including his skills, appearance, and personality. In the midst of this, Ohtani’s frugal past has captured the hearts of Korean fans recently.
Earlier, on May 1, 2018, the Japanese magazine Weekly FLASH reported an article titled “Shohei Otani’s ‘commuter car’ is a Korean-made sedan that costs only 2 million yen (approximately 19.8 million won).” The media reported that Ohtani’s salary has risen to tens of billions since joining the Los Angeles Angels, but “Ohtani has not changed as usual.” At the same time, he introduced that Ohtani rides in a Hyundai Motor Company vehicle that costs about 2 million yen instead of a luxury vehicle. Photos taken at the time showed Ohtani getting into or out of the passenger seat of the Sonata vehicle.
It is said that this was a vehicle that Ohtani himself selected and was provided by the club. According to reports, a club official at the time suggested that “wouldn’t it be better to have a bigger and stronger car?”, but Ohtani refused. Ohtani is known to have used the vehicle before obtaining a driver’s license in 2019. Since he did not have a driver’s license, an interpreter drove the car, and Ohtani always sat in the passenger seat. The reason, he said, was because he thought it was rude to sit in the back seat.
Netizens in domestic online communities who came across this anecdote commented, “There is no downside to being frugal”, “It’s cool that he doesn’t have extravagance even though he has a high salary”, “From Ohtani’s point of view, he may have thought that he was extravagant because he chose a foreign car.” They showed reactions such as “It looks good because there is no vanity.” 바카라사이트
Japanese netizens who saw the news in 2018 wrote to the online community, “If it were me, I would ride a more expensive car”, “Even if I were a rookie, this was an unexpected choice”, “Isn’t Ohtani thinking it was Honda after seeing only the ‘H’ in the logo?” , “It’s cool that he doesn’t go extravagant even when he goes to the major leagues.” One netizen joked, “I thought he was Korean because of his big physique, but it’s true.”
Meanwhile, Ohtani is known to have used Tesla’s Model X vehicle since obtaining his license. Currently, it has a sponsorship agreement with Porsche and uses Porsche vehicles. His annual salary this year is 30 million dollars (approximately 39 billion won), which is 10 times the prize money of this WBC championship. ESPN said, “Ohtani is the most talented player in baseball history,” and “through the WBC, it has become clearer that he is the best player in the world.”