Japan has produced Major League Baseball stars for years, but their victory in the most recent World Baseball Classic, paired with Shohei Ohtani’s consistent dominance, has them on top of the baseball world. However, Ohtani is not the only Japanese-born star making a name for himself in the MLB. The league is celebrating its Japanese stars by installing 12 custom manhole covers in Japan.
“Major League Baseball will celebrate the league’s 12 active Japanese players through custom manholes that will feature one player in each design, to be installed at locations associated with that player’s roots in baseball, starting Monday, June 16th,” wrote MLB.com. “Each of the 12 manholes were designed by different artists, crafted to tell the unique stories of the player’s path to Major League Baseball, while capturing their unique style and characteristics, both as players and individuals.”
The 12 players being featured are Ohtani, Yusei Kikuchi, Rōki Sasaki, Yu Darvish, Yuki Matsui, Shōta Imanaga, Lars Nootbaar, Seiya Suzuki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Masataka Yoshida, Kodai Senga, and Tomoyuki Sugano. Ohtani, Kikuchi, and Sasaki will have their custom manholes installed on June 16. However, the league, in partnership with Japan Airlines, has more planned as well.
“In addition, MLB and Japan Airlines (JAL) will collaborate for a special project that will further enrich the manhole experience for those that visit one of the manholes in person,” wrote MLB.com. “Details of this project will be announced together with the launch of the first manhole on June 16th.”
The in-person visiting experience is already slated to be unique. Fans can scan the manholes with their phones and watch an augmented reality movie.
It is hard to imagine the MLB right now without the contributions the game is getting from Japanese-born players. Their development is not only a credit to them, but also to Nippon Professional Baseball and the overall baseball infrastructure in Japan.
Only four of the players who are getting custom manholes installed were not part of Japan’s 2023 World Baseball Classic victory.
