Ohtani spoke with SI to promote becoming the first baseball player to join the Fortnite Icon Series. The first baseball player named an All-Star as a pitcher and hitter and the first to record a 50–50 season, Shohei Ohtani is breaking new ground again: the first baseball player to join the Fortnite Icon Series.

Although the 2025 MLB Opening Day is on March 27, the season will start earlier than that. That's because Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers are scheduled to play the Chicago Cubs for two games in the Tokyo Series that will begin next Monday at the Tokyo Dome.

Hundreds of fans at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, who lined up 10 deep and hoped to catch a glimpse of Shohei Ohtani as he arrived on Thursday, saw nothing of the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar.