For the first time in two decades I have a new favorite player.
Admittedly, it seems silly to still be selecting favorite players at my age. I've long passed the period where someone currently playing on the field is older than me. Just about everyone playing these days are "babies" to me, and I know that I have almost nothing in common with many of them.
But then somebody like Shohei Ohtani does something like this, and I'm a wide-eyed youngster again.
So, yeah, Shohei Ohtani is my new favorite player.
He surpasses the retiring Clayton Kershaw, who had been my favorite player for longer than any other Dodger in the life of my fandom. Here is the rundown, which I last listed -- holy smokes -- 15 year ago.
1975-83: Ron Cey
1983-85: Pedro Guerrero
1985-94: Orel Hershiser
1995-99: Raul Mondesi
2000-04: Shawn Green
2005-07: Brad Penny
2007-08: Russell Martin
2009-25: Clayton Kershaw
2025-?: Shohei Ohtani
Usually I don't select a new favorite player until the previous one is no longer on the team (either through trade or retirement). And, no, I did not downgrade Clayton Kershaw a smidge early due to any performance issues or personal beliefs. I don't believe in selecting favorites based on whether their views line up with mine. There's too much of that happening among the hyper-online.
I pick players based on what they do on the field and, generally, how they behave as people, i.e., no criminal behavior. That's it. Sometimes I get disappointed when I find out how some player thinks (gee whiz, he fishes and hunts?). But that's where it ends. I don't need my players to be role models according to me. Never have. Look at Guerrero, Mondesi or Penny. They're ballplayers, i.e., imperfect humans paid to play ball. In our super-analytical world today, in 2025, it's too easy to pick them apart. If I was trying to get upset about them, all I'd have to do is find out what music they listen to and go from there. Just enjoy the game.
So, I selected Ohtani a little early based on his crazy skills and also because he seems genuinely pleasant in that way where he's always checking on the field to see if everyone's OK. The trolls will bring up the interpreter gambling scandal or all the money he got from the Dodgers or the fact that he's even on the Dodgers or whatever. But they're looking for stuff to be negative about. I prefer to focus on what he's shown on the field.
Now ...
... I expect to be wildly unsuccessful with acquiring cards of my new favorite player, as unsuccessful as I've ever been.
This happened a little bit with Kershaw, but I was fortunate to get in early before he became nationally known as a high performer and I was eventually priced out of his fancier cards. Still I've accumulated over 1,200 cards of the guy.
Ohtani, though, is on another level, no one that I've selected in the past as my favorite player can come close. Orel Hershiser was the man for about a year and then there was Kershaw. That's it. I've never had trouble, for the most part, in landing a Ron Cey card.
Already in many examples with my Dodger card collecting, I've landed all the cards in the set -- insert set, whatever -- except for the Ohtani card. Here is a bit -- though not the greatest example -- of what I mean:
Johnny's Trading Spot was nice enough to send along my first look at 2025 Topps Chrome in Dodger form. These nine cards. (I promise I'll show the rest of what he sent in the next few days). But Ohtani is not with them. Granted, neither is Snell, Kim or Sasaki. There could many reasons for this: Ohtani wasn't in the lot Johnny found, he needed one for his collection but didn't have a dupe like these other guys, or Ohtani is a guy he collects.
The plain fact is Ohtani's cards aren't available for lots of reasons. Fortunately, because of his popularity, card companies make a ton of cards of him. TCDB says I have 131 cards of him, which is 73rd in my collection, not too bad for someone in the league eight years and me not having cash to really go on a shopping binge.
But that's OK. I'm not a player collector. I'll pick up Ohtani cards here and there on a whim, and I really don't care if I don't have his autograph or whatever hit thing is out there. Look I'll even take this, my latest card of him:
Look at this fool thing. "Gameday Drip". I hate that phrase. But somehow it works with him in a not-too-annoying way and I wanted it and it didn't cost much.
From here on out, every Ohtani card that I pull -- that 2025 Heritage pink sparkly card I showed earlier may turn out to be my pull of the year given this development -- will be a great feat.
It's been an interesting ride with Ohtani on my team. I admit I didn't pay attention much when he was with the Angels. I heard all the praise for his legendary feats, which seemed kind of over-the-top for me. I do get it now, though I was surprised by how much he strikes out.
It's nice to have a new favorite player. Kershaw didn't let me down and I don't think Ohtani will either. It's possible he could be my last favorite player. We'll see how much I'm still caring about this current game when he's ready to retire.
I wish we could go back to the days when we weren't informed of every last thought or act of every player. I think that's ruined a lot of us in rooting for these guys and, I admit, for me, too. We know too much. But I really try to keep things as they were when I was younger -- before the internet, basically.
That's why I still do childish things like pick my favorite player.
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