Dodgers news: Shohei Ohtani, Fernando Valenzuela, Walker Buehler

Some other World Series-themed posts on the Dodgers and Yankees to start off Saturday morning.

Despite enormous expectations, Shohei Ohtani carries on with “unwavering cool,” writes Chelsea Janes in the Washington Post.

These World Series games in Japan take place early in the morning, making for a combination of breakfast and baseball. Also in awe of Ohtani. From Rustin Dodd at The Athletic:

“In the global market, Japan's value and power are becoming a little weaker every year,” said Tomoki Negishi, a baseball marketing manager who worked for the Japanese Pacific League. “So Ohtani-san’s great achievement is a beacon.”

For some, Ohtani is “a symbol of Japan on the global market.”

To others?

“He’s just a crazy superhero that I’ve never seen before,” Negishi says.

Ohtani's global popularity has led to a change in the way Major League Baseball markets itself, as Commissioner Rob Manfred explained to Evan Drellich at The Athletic:

“If you hear something enough times, I think it takes a certain level of arrogance to ignore it, and it was definitely something that was said,” Manfred said. “That’s why I paid attention. It's a question of concentration. The local clubs did a lot of marketing and we relied on that local marketing. I think I’m talking about a completely different focus here.”

Walker Buehler spoke with Michael Rosen at FanGraphs, among others, about trying to strike out batters after two hits.

Noah Goldberg of the Los Angeles Times had a great idea for a story and found Dodgers fans with the same names as the current Yankees.

Carlos Torres was the home plate umpire for Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night. Two years ago, he became the first Venezuelan umpire to work a World Series game, and Clinton Yates wrote about him for Andscape at the time.

Here is Tom Verducci's narrated video tribute to Fernando Valenzuela, televised by Fox and shown Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

In his obituary for Valenzuela, Jay Jaffe of FanGraphs argues that Valenzuela deserves the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award in the Hall of Fame:

Few figures in baseball history have met these criteria as well as Valenzuela. With typical modesty, he avoided the title of “hero,” but beyond his notable achievements on the field, his influence in expanding the reach of baseball and his service as a “beacon of hope, inspiration and pride” for Mexicans, Mexican Americans etc other Latinos, is undeniable.

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