Spanish
LOS ANGELES — The camaraderie within the Los Angeles Dodgers' locker room added a tender episode this week, when manager Dave Roberts and his wife Tricia surprised Japanese star Shohei Ohtani by gifting a pink toy Porsche to his newborn daughter.
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Ohtani shared the moment on his Instagram account, showing the toy stroller and thanking his manager for the gesture. "We had a little practical joke situation going on," Roberts commented this Wednesday. "But this was a real gift for the baby."
The story between Roberts, Ohtani, and the toy Porsches began as an inside joke in May, when Roberts jokingly suggested that Ohtani should reward him with a Porsche after breaking the home run record for a Japanese player in the Dodgers franchise, a mark that Roberts himself had set during his career as a baseball player. Ohtani responded by giving him a purple toy Porsche for his office.
The joke continued in March, when Ohtani placed another small Porsche in Roberts' personal parking lot at Camelback Ranch, during spring training.
Ohtani, always generous with his teammates, also gifted a real Porsche to Ashley Kelly, wife of pitcher Joe Kelly, for giving up the number 17 when he joined the team in December 2023.Shohei Ohtani's first daughter was born on April 19th. True to his reserved style, neither he nor his wife, Mamiko Tanaka, have publicly revealed the baby's name or other details.
When asked about the Japanese person's reaction to the gift, Roberts was clear: "He was very grateful."
