Toronto wanted Shohei Ohtani. It got Shark Tank instead | About That

There’s a part of Toronto’s Pearson Airport that’s reserved for VIPs a special hanger for arrivals and departures of high-profile guests and on Friday if you caught a glimpse of the crowd of sports media photographers and fans on that part of the tarmac you might have figured something spectacular

Was about to happen flight tracker identified a plane that might be carrying Otani to Toronto it could be Melissa the biggest Sports story to ever touch down in Toronto if it’s true but he is on route to Toronto right now you could see see the plane and the open

Door and there was a vehicle pulled up and things were looking good but um then then a man who was clearly not Otani got out Toronto went from having a star in its sights potentially signing the Shi Otani considered one of the best baseball players in the world and maybe

Even of all time to effectively having to say goodbye to something it never really had here’s how it played out Moment by Moment for weeks fans and the entire league really were waiting for Shi Otani to make up his mind and sign a contract the stakes were super high because wherever he signed it was sure to be a blockbuster deal he’s an ultra rare ace pitcher and super Slugger he’s doing

Both and he is excelling at both we have quite simply never seen that before he performs at the top of the league on the mound and at the plate no one has done both this well since Babe Ruth and that’s going back almost a 100 years so there was no shortage of speculation

About where he’d go we may see a $600 million player and whether that’s the Los Angeles Dodgers the San Francisco Giants the Blue Jays have built some momentum to me it’s down to the Dodgers and the Jays as the two best op options for shy and when the MLB’s so-called

Winter meetings where deals are often made came and went on Friday without a deal for Otani that’s when rumors really started to ramp up nothing could get Baseball fans amped up in December like rampant rumors about the htest player on the planet making his way here maybe please come to

Toronto they’ll be great earlier last week Otani made an impromptu visit to the Blue Jays Player Development complex in Florida many took that as a sign of just how seriously he was considering Toronto I’ve updated the pie chart for Shi Otani now we’re going to chew on

This I want all of you to weigh in if I’m on to something here 60% for the Toronto Blue Jays and then on Friday a well-known MLB broadcaster John morosi posted on X Source show otani’s decision is imminent possibly as early as today followed by sources shohi Otani is on

Route to Toronto today so the internet runs with morosi’s tweets and starts doing what it does best searching for Clues anywhere and everywhere eventually pinpointing a private flight traveling midair from Southern California to Toronto thousands of people suddenly become armchair air traffic controllers monitoring the flights every move as it

Inches closer and closer to Canada so is that Otani just about to cross over to the Nevada state line it might be now we should say there was no real evidence that Otani was on that flight even at the time but there was a lot of Hope and

A lot of Buzz this is an athlete who will transcend regionality he’ll be an impact athlete from every possible aspect of this country I think this is one of the perfect SE for him and then another viral post on X Source you say Kikuchi a pitcher for the Jays reserves

Entire upscale sushi restaurant near Roger Center for tonight reservation made for 50 plus people make of it what you will and you could tell people really wanted this yes that’s a Jay’s Jersey but here’s the thing at no point did the Jays themselves shut down any of

These rumors and that made a big difference because many read that silence as evidence this could happen this rumor was awful because it wasn’t true and no one in the know did anything about it a reporter with Dodgers Nation even wrote an article saying he had confirmed the Toronto rumors according

To multiple sources reporters photographers fans all rushed to Toronto’s Pearson Airport hoping to catch a glimpse of Toronto’s newest Superstar I think the flight was meant to land at around 4:30 and I probably arrived around 4 to sort of just in time that’s CBC photographer Evan mitsui he drove over an hour out to Pearson Airport on Friday to try and help put an end to all

Of these rumors one way or another and there were already other media Vehicles there the sportset was there TSN was there and and some security uh which seemed like a good sign right why why would you need security if not to protect some high-profile person it seemed to Evan like everything was

Falling into place and he was about to capture this massive moment for baseball and Toronto we saw it the physical plane you know fit the description that everybody was sharing online and uh hopped out of the car and jumped over a little soggy ditch and uh peered under a

Fence and and sure enough you could see see the plane and the open door and there was a vehicle pulled up and things were looking good but um then then a man who was clearly not Otani got out I think we were all a bit shocked it

Didn’t take long for word to spread but accepting that truth that was a different matter now Bob Nightingale is saying that showy is not in Toronto who was on the plane that we just tracked oh not on a flight to tronto I don’t believe him bro I can’t how could

Everybody everybody in the entire industry got fooled no like that’s no Bob we now know the man on that plane was actually Canadian businessman Robert hervic best known as a host on Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank he later poked fun at the whole thing on Instagram adding all

Joking aside I’m not Shi Otani and he was not on my plane today turns out Otani was at home in California all along and unfortunately for Toronto fans California is exactly where he’ll stay likely for at least the next decade the Dodgers were the favorite all along which is what we’ve always said

Yeah because of two things geography number one number two they are the most consistent winning team in major league baseball Otani announced the news of the Dodgers deal himself on Instagram apologizing for taking so long to come to a decision it is the rich contract in North American professional sports

History $700 million us over 10 years and at least 100 million more than expected far surpassing the last record-breaking Sports contract which was a poultry 450 million for 10 years for Kansas City Chief’s quarterback Patrick Mahomes and 700 million is a lot of money but remember this guy is a huge

Investment with what will likely pay huge returns for the team and in the city he has two values as a ball player and as a marketing entity I mean his value as a marketing entity is through the roof the sports reporter is responsible for those false Reports most

Notably the on route to Toronto tweet and the deal has been reached with Toronto report they’ve since come out and apologized but for fans that doesn’t take the sting away so how big of a gut punch is this to the Toronto fan base massive one for sure Cory because

The idea that he would come up and be a Toronto Blue Jay was going to change everything so is all hope lost for the Blue Jays well it is only December plenty of time to fill in that Otani shaped Hole

Blue Jays fans had their dreams dashed after learning free agent Shohei Ohtani signed a historic $700-million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Andrew Chang gives a moment-by-moment breakdown of the mad speculation and confusion that led up to Toronto’s disappointment, and how a judge on Shark Tank and Dragons’ Den found himself in the middle of it all.

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