Social media is losing it on a private jet they think Shohei Ohtani will be on
By Josh Wilson
It's not been long since flight records of private jets have sent the sports media landscape in a bit of a tailspin. Just this summer, journalists and fans alike were heavily tracking a jets from the New York metro area to small airports in California near Aaron Rodgers.
Now, a private jet scheduled to head from Santa Ana airport (SNA) to Toronto (YYZ) that's scheduled for Friday has fans wondering if Shohei Ohtani's free agency is winding down, culminating in a signing with the Toronto Blue Jays.
My assessment? Not likely, but maybe!
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Twitter users are connecting loosely disparate dots as evidence of a chartered flight being for Ohtani
One unknown Twitter user first pointed out that a flight from Santa Ana popped up as scheduled for Toronto on Thursday night. Another user in a Reddit conversation pointed out that the plane model -- A Bombardier Global 5000 -- is a plane Ohtani is known to travel on.
That last fact -- a similar plane that Ohtani has once traveled on before -- is likely irrelevant. The choice of a jet type for a private charter has much more to do with distance capability, party size, and availability/scheduling than customer preference.
Could this be a flight scheduled for Ohtani? Plausibly, yes.
Is it likely? That's hard to say.
I'd reason the odds this flight is for something and/or someone else entirely are more likely than it being for Ohtani. Remember, Ohtani's first meeting with the Blue Jays was in Florida at the Jays facilities in Dundein. While a Toronto trip might indicate more seriousness of a connection, Ohtani could also be on another flight to Canada or not even planning to visit at all before making a decision.
All that said, there were no flights from July-onward in 2022 that went from Santa Ana to the Toronto Pearson Airport. The path is certainly a year-to-year aberration from the normal for these two airports.
MLB Network's Jon Morosi reported early Friday morning Ohtani's decision could come as early as today. The timelines match up.
If you're a believer in the flight theory, it's scheduled to land in Toronto at just before 4 p.m. Eastern.
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