It didn't take Shohei Ohtani long to befriend the wife of a new Dodger teammate.
While the Ohtani sweepstakes were still underway, Ashley Kelly — wife of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly — went viral online for her attempts to recruit Ohtani to the Dodgers. She promised Ohtani that he could have her husband's No. 17 jersey number if he was to join the Dodgers in free agency.
Along with saying that Ohtani could take No. 17 (the same number Ohtani wore throughout his Los Angeles Angels tenure), Ashley Kelly's recruiting campaign — which she called #Ohtake17 — also involved jokingly changing her 7-month-old son's name from Kai to ShoKai and offering Ohtani every piece of Dodgers No. 17 apparel she owned: a bedazzled hat, jerseys in every size and even a "Zaddy 17" sweater, to name a few.
While we don't know how much #Ohtake17 influenced Ohtani's decision to join the Dodgers (we'd imagine the record-breaking 10-year, $700 million contract was incentive enough), it certainly didn't hurt — as proved by how Ohtani showed his appreciation of Kelly's campaign: by buying her a Porsche for Christmas.
Ashley Kelly informed the world of Ohtani's gift by posting about it on Instagram, with the caption, "Shokai's beautiful bra-less mom opened the door to one of the coolest days of her life. Thank you, @shoheiohtani ??" The video shows Kelly looking out her front door at a new Porsche sitting outside, while her husband Joe — who was clearly in the know — says in the background, "It's yours. From Shohei. He wanted to gift you a Porsche."
Talk about a good teammate.
Perhaps Ohtani had heard that Kelly wasn't too keen to give up No. 17. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Kelly said, "I wasn't going to give it up to just anybody. If Shohei keeps performing, he'll be a future Hall of Famer and I'll be able to have my number retired. That's the closest I'll get to the Hall of Fame."
When asked what Ohtani would be giving Kelly in return for that number, Kelly said, "Oh, there's a list, but no comment."
Considering Ashley Kelly's surprise at Ohtani's Christmas gift, we assume a Porsche was not on that list. Clearly, Ohtani is willing to go above and beyond for his new franchise.
