The anecdote that Shohei Otani (29, Los Angeles Angels), a major leaguer who led the Japanese baseball team to the WBC championship, rode a Hyundai Sonata in the early days of entering the United States is gathering attention again.
On the 21st, an article titled ‘Ohtani, who rode a Hyundai Sonata for two years after entering the US’ was posted on an online community in the May 1, 2018 issue of Flash, a Japanese weekly magazine.
At the time, Flash published an article titled ‘Ohtani’s commuter car is a Korean sedan that costs only 2 million yen (about 20 million won)’ and paid attention to his frugal life.
After the 2017 season, Ohtani, who was 23 years old at the time, signed a contract with the minor leagues in accordance with the major league’s ‘foreign player contract under the age of 25’ rule and received an annual salary of 60 million yen (approximately 600 million won).
At the time, Ohtani rode in a car provided by the club, but he chose a Hyundai Sonata himself. He reportedly suggested that the club get a better car, but Ohtani turned it down.
Ohtani did not have a driver’s license at the time, so a Japanese interpreter drove and went to work with him. Ohtani always sat in the passenger seat, and he says the reason was because he hated sitting in the back seat and acting like anything was going on.
Flash said, “I’ve been living a frugal life since the days of the Nippon Ham Fighters.”
Netizens reacted to Ohtani’s thrifty side by saying, “Why are there no downsides?”, “Waves and waves are just pretty stories”,안전놀이터 “I knew it was an interpreter’s car, but Ohtani chose it”, “He’s even frugal. He even keeps the passenger seat manners”. left
Since then, Ohtani, who obtained a driver’s license, has been known to use a Tesla vehicle, but since last year, he has been using a Porsche that signed an ambassador contract.
Meanwhile, Ohtani will become a free agent (FA) player after this season. Currently, the US sports market estimates his ransom at 500 to 600 million won (650 to 780 billion won) based on a 10-year contract