The crowd is alive at the Tokyo Series between the Dodgers and Cubs at the legendary Tokyo Dome! Baseball is back! Beer is $6! Joey Votto is around! And ... alright, I'm looking around the stadium, and ... we're all good on dressing up as and impersonating Shohei Ohtani's dog Decoy, actually. We don't need to do any more of that.
Tickets were obviously tough to come by for this one. Japan's scalping ban means that, even for those willing to massively overpay, it was extremely difficult to find a way into the ballpark. And of course it was. Ohtani returned to his homeland for the first time as a World Series champion. So did Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Game 2, featuring Roki Sasaki's MLB debut, might be an even tougher ticket, even with Justin Steele opposing him instead of Shōta Imanaga, who pitched Game 1.
And yet, even out of the relative few people who were able to obtain tickets, a non-zero amount of them woke up, dressed as Shohei Ohtani's dog, then went about their business. They brushed their teeth, pulled on a white t-shirt, then tugged on their dog masks down to their neck.
"Wait a second," they said. "Is this the correct dog mask, out of my many dog masks?" They entertained a last-minute switch before exiting the house dressed head-to-toe as a floppy Nederlandese Kooikerhondje (a breed we all know) wearing baseball pants, then decided they'd nailed it the first time.
We are about 4 hours away from first pitch in Tokyo against the Dodgers and Cubs and the Ohtani, Yamamoto, Imanaga and Decoy impersonators are VERY popular. pic.twitter.com/ymAdY7I9mO
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 18, 2025
No more impersonators of Shohei Ohtani's dog Decoy at Dodgers vs. Cubs Tokyo Series, please
Very good effort. Well executed. Also, no more of this, please.
Do not - do not - discount the fact that the Shohei Ohtani's Dog Impersonator above has a big canvas bag labeled "Decopin," presumably full of treats? Or are they looking for tips? If the satchel (appropriately human-sized rather than dog-sized) is packed with treats, are they dog treats, or human treats? Small brown pellets, or turkey legs? Loose food bones?
There's something that's somehow even more uncomfortable about dressing up as a specific dog, too. Dog costume at a baseball game? I'm confused, but I'll respect it. Pretending to be a little dog who goes home to Shohei Ohtani's house? I'm shivering.
Anyhow, enough is enough. This degree of grifting cosplay cannot stand. If you want to dress up as a dog and attend a baseball game, just wait for Anthrocon and go visit Andrew McCutchen in Pittsburgh.