As Shohei Ohtani gets closer to deciding on where he’ll play next season and beyond, Portia, who calls herself a “Sho-bae,” and leads an ‘X’ Ohtani fan account that has a following of more than 150,000 people, isn’t getting a ton of sleep.
It can be difficult to keep up with all the rumours.
In fact, Portia had been researching Ohtani so much that her phone died in the middle of her interview with Sportsnet. She had to plug it in to get more juice before she resumed talking about her favourite baseball player from her home just outside of Manila, in the Philippines, where she lives and works in the tech industry.
Portia, who doesn’t want her last name or age published for privacy reasons, calls herself “someone who enjoys baseball from a different perspective, and not just for stats.”
Portia was featured on an Effectively Wild podcast earlier this week, and as Ohtani gets closer to making his decision, we reached out to seek her expertise.
She talks to Sportsnet about where she figures Ohtani is playing in 2024, why the Blue Jays would be a good fit, why she thinks she’ll add a blue Ohtani jersey to her collection (she already has 10), why she finds him devastatingly good looking and the one thing she doesn’t know about him but wishes she did:
SPORTSNET: How much of your time does following Ohtani take up?
PORTIA: Oh my. I don’t know if it takes up my time — I feel like it’s part of me. Because I’ve been doing it since 2018, it’s very normal for me to just look at my phone and check whatever is happening in his world. It’s part of my life.
SN: Life must be busy right now since he’s all over the news. Where do you think he’ll play next season?
PORTIA: I mean, seriously, it’s going to be the Dodgers. Rationally speaking, that’s what you think. But sometimes this guy is very mysterious and likes to surprise everyone. He’s very unpredictable.
But I can see that – and he likes blue colours. That’s his favourite colour. Good thing the Blue Jays, the Cubs and the Dodgers are all wearing blue.
I don’t know if he wants to move to the NL or stay in the AL. I think he’s interested in playing on the East Coast, just because it’s a very different environment…. Maybe if he wants something new, he should go somewhere else.
It’s so unpredictable because you don’t really know what’s up with him because no one really guessed that he was going to choose the Angels too, right? But if the rumors are true, the last three teams that are bidding for him, and logically speaking, it’s the Dodgers.
SN: Ok, but since he’s unpredictable… What do you think the Blue Jays have to offer?
PORTIA: His stats playing in Rogers Centre are very, very good. He plays extremely well when he’s in Toronto. And he really likes Vladdy Jr. as a player. Because every time he gets interviewed mostly with the Japanese reporters, he says he likes Vladdy, and you can see them interact a lot when he gets on first base. They play around a lot. There’s a video of Vladdy and Shohei playing around in the dugout during All-Star Weekend.
And of course, [Yusei] Kikuchi is there. I think Kikuchi talked to him about playing in Canada. They’re from the same hometown in Japan, same high school — they used the same room. It’s a boarding school for baseball players. Same room, same number, and when Shohei was there he looked up to Kikuchi. So I think maybe on the side of being friends with other players, he has more interactions with the Toronto Blue Jays. And he has mentioned that he likes Bo Bichette. So that’s interesting…
Shohei likes people that are close to his age range. All his close friends with the Angels are the same age or younger than him. I think that’s why he feels maybe close to Vladdy and Bo Bichette, because they’re young. In Japan, there’s this age hierarchy. When someone’s older than you, it’s like he can’t approach them.
SN: What can teams do to show Ohtani their city and team is the best place for him?
PORTIA: Shohei is a pretty simple guy. But if they gave him enough freedom to do his training, because he does a lot of training, so he needs that. You’ve got to promise him that you will let him be a two-way player. That’s his whole baseball character. If you try and change how he plays, it’s not going to work. And the team has to be dog-friendly.
To be honest, at this point in his career, he wants to win. I think a team that has a chance of winning is what he’s looking for. And if you can promise him that you have all of this for him, he’s going to move there. I don’t think money really matters.
SN: How much is he worth?
PORTIA: $600 million.
SN: Do you think you’ll make it to a game next season, see him in person for the first time?
PORTIA: Definitely. I just came back from China last August [she was working there]. And certainly, I have more freedom now because I was stuck there during the pandemic for a long time. So now I have more freedom to travel and I’m definitely going. I do have lots of relatives in the U.S., so it’s easier for me. I don’t know about Canada though.
SN: Uh-oh. Did you make up the term, Sho-bae?
PORTIA: Yes, I think so. I was saying it back in 2018, I was just basically saying it for myself. But a few weeks after he had a very good run in April 2018, a lot of fans started following me. So it just basically started, and then so many people were following me. I’m not gonna lie, it’s mostly girls. And some guys that got lost in my Twitter thinking I’ll be Tweeting normal stuff, like stats. But they’re fine. I talk to them too. And they’re used to how the Sho-Baes talk, and they’re fine with it.
SN: How do the Sho-Baes talk?
PORTIA: We’re all definitely appreciating how he looks. We like to make TikTok videos of him, photos, videos of him doing artwork. It feels really different from other baseball fans. So if ever he moves to a new team, they’ll be shocked because with Shohei comes the Sho-Bae — oh yeah! And there’s a lot of us. So, be ready!
SN: If you were to meet him, what’s the first thing you would say to him?
PORTIA: “Shohei, your uniform looks good. And what perfume do you use?” Everyone says he smells so good.
SN: Who says that?
PORTIA: His teammate in WBC, he was a pitcher for Japan. And he said he got to hug Ohtani and he said he smelled so good, even when they were both sweaty.
SN: What a gift! Is there a favourite fact about him, or a story you want to share about him?
PORTIA: Oh, yes. When he moved to the U.S., he didn’t know how to drive, and it was his first time living alone. So the first thing he did in Arizona was learn how to cook. They got a chef, like a sports chef expert to teach him how to cook for himself. And they were all amazed, because he was pretty good at it, even though he said it was his first time. There are pictures of what he cooked. It just shows that he can adapt very easily and he learns really well.
Something MLB fans should know is Shohei can adapt. So even if he moves to a new team, he will be the guy in the dugout that everyone wants to be friends with. It’ll be very easy for them.
He’s also very smart. In Japan, high school is very hard because you need to be very good at everything. And he was top two in his class. That is very hard to do, especially while playing baseball. He has very good handwriting and he can draw very well. It’s very good. He could be an artist. Maybe he will pursue that after baseball.
SN: You talk a lot about his looks, so let’s get this on the table: Just how good looking is Ohtani?
PORTIA: Oh, he looks really good. Everyone I know who has seen him says: ‘He’s unreal in real life.’ I know some baseball fans don’t know, but he does a lot of photoshoots during the offseason, and he does a lot of commercials that show how good looking he is. And he has a line right now for skin care, which I bought – it’s really good, highly recommend. They just started selling it in the U.S. In Costco, you can grab one. In California, you can see a life-sized cut-out of him with his products. [Editor’s note: Portia later kindly DMd us a link to his skin care line so we could buy products].
SN: Which of his products did you buy?
PORTIA: I bought a skincare line for the sun, and the face cream. Okay, this is a complicated process. He has an expensive line and a mid-line. The expensive ones are really expensive — It’s like $100 for a little amount. And I didn’t want to buy that. I’m sorry, Shohei, I’m broke [laughs].
SN: Any improvements to your skin since you’ve started his products?
PORTIA: Oh, yeah. My skin started looking really nice. Glowing, dewy, soft looking, pearly and clean.
SN: Kind of like his face?
PORTIA: Yes! Every fan you ask, they will say they love his face and they really love his skin, because he has really nice skin. And then his biceps.
SN: Haha — I guess there’s skin on his biceps.
PORTIA: Yes, he tries to hide it, but one time he was wearing a sleeveless shirt, and it went viral. His arms are really huge. I Tweeted something about that, it got like 60,000 likes, 15,000 retweets. It went really big, and I think people sent it to him. The next day, he was wearing a loose shirt. He never wears really tight tank tops. Ugh, we never saw it again. He should just share it.
SN: [Laughs]. Oh my goodness. How did you discover him? You’ve mentioned there aren’t a lot of MLB fans in the Philippines.
PORTIA: No, baseball does not exist here. I was just on Twitter and doing my own thing and someone Retweeted a video of him getting his first hit in MLB. And I watched it, I’m like, ‘Holy moly. There is an Asian guy playing baseball right now and he looks so cute. How could this happen?’ It was quite a shocking experience. And then I started following him.
SN: And you fell in love with baseball in the process.
PORTIA: Yes, that’s exactly it. But when I started tweeting about him, I noticed most baseball fans don’t share photos. They just share normal things about baseball, like stats and videos. But no one really shared photos and no one was appreciating how nice he looks. I thought, ‘Everyone’s kind of missing out.’ So I started doing that. And then suddenly people started following me. Mostly girls. Yeah, he’s that hot guy playing baseball.
SN: How long did it take your Twitter account to explode into the success it is now?
PORTIA: In 2018, I think I got like 10,000 followers suddenly, and then 2021, 40,000. And then around 2023, it jumped to 150,000. I don’t know what happened, I think it was WBC. Other countries that didn’t even care about baseball, people were messaging me about him. It was crazy because before it was mostly Americans and Japanese people who were following me. But now it’s a lot of Southeast Asian countries. South Korea. Taiwanese. Even Latin American countries, you can see my mentions, it’s all in different languages. It’s really amazing.
SN: What’s the one thing you don’t know about him that you most want to know?
PORTIA: I think every Sho-Bae will say the same: If he’s really single or not, because that is the most mysterious thing ever. Even when he was in Japan, the paparazzi in Japan is very good. There’s a lot of people that have been trying to go to find out more about Ohtani’s secret life, if he has one. They’ve been staying in his apartment in Japan. There was like 60 of them and they didn’t get anything, just his mom going there. So if ever he moves to Canada, hopefully someone can spill the beans on Shohei, if he meets someone.
SN: They probably don’t know?
PORTIA: He works as a part-time model in the off-season. I don’t know why MLB’s not sharing what he does during the off season. And I know a lot of MLB reporters and people say that he doesn’t talk to the media — he does. But maybe because no one’s translating it, he’s doing it in Japanese. And he does a lot of shows and documentaries. And I wish MLB would know about it so they can share how he interacts with fans. And share more of his photoshoots, because people need to know how he looks. I don’t know why MLB didn’t hype his GQ cover and photoshoot. I don’t know what’s up with them, why they didn’t hype that because that was done by a very famous American photographer and designer. It is amazing. I feel like they’re just sleeping during the off-season. Like oh my god, missed opportunity…
Portia’s phone dies as she’s talking about the MLB’s missed opportunity, but she plugs it in and resumes the interview a couple of minutes later.
SN: Did your phone die because you were looking at so many videos and photos of Shohei today?
PORTIA: Yes, probably [laughs].
SN: Is there a bigger Shohei expert than you?
PORTIA: On the Japanese side, there is. Mostly the Japanese reporters that have been covering Shohei since he was in high school. There a writer that’s famous in Japan…that is the only writer that Ohtani allows to interview him. The only writer he trusts. But the writer is more baseball and sports-specific. So if you are talking about the secret life and what he was doing last weekend, if he took photos, I think I might be better than him. The writer doesn’t look enough at the photos.
SN: Is a picture of Shohei the background on your phone?
PORTIA: Oh, if you could see my devices. I’m not a stalker, I’m not following him or anything. I just like to save and organize photos of him. I annoy my family because I change all of their wallpaper backgrounds. Because I work in tech, I handle all of my family’s stuff. So if you visit our home, our TV’s wallpaper is Ohtani doing his photoshoot with Hugo Boss, with his biceps.
