Watching the baseball playoffs isn’t just about seeing the same teams play multiple games against each other. It also means seeing the same ads during those multiple games. SUV! beer! Gambling (lots and lots of gambling)! It’s all very predictable, if not more attractive in terms of predictability. One ad is largely an exception, and all the more attractive for being so: a New Balance ad featuring Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Shohei Ohtani.
We see Ohtani in this strange-looking space—it looks more like an empty swimming pool than a gym—but you hardly notice because he fills the space so captivatingly. His hat is on backwards, and he’s wearing batting gloves, a sweatshirt, then a T-shirt — all with the NB logo, natch — and track pants. He swings the bat, catches the ball, hits a few (a more accurate verb would be “whacks” or “whmps”), and throws the ball. When he’s not looking intently, he’s smiling — the guy has a great smile — and laughing. Finally, he says in a voiceover, “New Balance: Here we are.”
All the while the song “Hollywood Swinging” by Kool and the Gang plays on the soundtrack. This is great on at least three levels. Hollywood is 6 miles, where volleyball rises, from Chavez Ravine, where the Dodgers play, but close enough; A different kind of swing is sung, but it’s also close enough. The song itself is R&B-on-the-verge-of-disco (that’s a genre, even if you can’t find it on Spotify) at its irresistible best. And when the chorus says “Hello, hello, hello,” it sure sounds like “shuhei.” It’s spelled “Hay, Hey, Hey.”
This has been a mind-boggling year for Ohtani. He is still recovering from Tommy John surgery, so he was not able to play this season. (Even non-sports fans are likely aware that Ohtani is the first major leaguer since Babe Ruth to be both a pitcher and an everyday player.) It was revealed that his longtime compiler had embezzled millions from him to pay off gambling debts. (Hey, or rather, “Hey, don’t you like those gambling ads?”) So, unable to play and affected by the scandal, Ohtani set out to become the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season – more precisely, He hit 54 and stole 59.
Oh, and in August, his dog, Dickoy, threw the first pitch at a Dodgers game, allowing Ohtani the chance to be the first ballplayer to go viral because he gave a pet a high pitch. When you do this, he (i.e. Ohtani, but also Shirk) looks even cooler than he does in the ad.
Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com.
