In addition to press conference backdrops, Funai will have a presence behind home plate at Angel StadiumTWITTER
The Angels yesterday announced the first "significant financial windfall" from P/OF Shohei Ohtani’s presence, signing a deal with Japanese electronics company Funai, which will "sponsor the backdrop at Angels press conferences and some advertising at Angel Stadium," according to Jeff Fletcher of the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. The Angels are "clearly capitalizing on the eyeballs certain to follow Ohtani’s every move." Ohtani this week arrived at Spring Training in Tempe, and yesterday held a press conference "packed with about 200 media members" (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 2/15). In L.A., Mike DiGiovanna notes Funai will "receive advertising on the home-plate rotational sign in Angel Stadium and Tempe Diablo Stadium" (L.A. TIMES, 2/15). Meanwhile, the L.A. Times' Pedro Moura said Ohtani's personal endorsements are "going to skyrocket" with his arrival in America. Moura: "He was already taking in several million a year in Japan. That's only going to increase here in the U.S." MLB Network's Chris Russo said, "He has to play well, though, to get the endorsements. If he pitches lousy and doesn't hit, nobody's going to care." Moura: "If in four months he proves to be a 4.00 ERA guy and just kind of an average pitcher, then yes, I would imagine that's going to cost him. At the same time, if he did that in Japan, it would've cost him in two years, too" ("High Heat," MLB Network, 2/14).
TAKING IT IN STRIDE: In L.A., Bill Plaschke notes Ohtani will be "followed closely by what surely will be the largest number of media members focused solely on a single player." Every morning this week, there have been "more than a dozen Japanese media cameras waiting outside the stadium parking lot in hopes of recording Ohtani's arrival." Everywhere Ohtani walks, there is the "clicking of cameras and rustling of many, many feet." When he hit one of his "long home runs in his first batting practice, the air was filled with shrieks." His press conference yesterday was held in a "nearby hotel ballroom because there's no corner of the aging stadium that could accommodate" the throng of reporters (L.A. TIMES, 2/15).
