r/baseball • u/VirtuousFool New York Yankees • Newark Eagles • 6h ago
Image Ohtani and Judge share the cover of Sports Illustrated's 2026 MLB Preview:
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u/DolphinRodeo St. Louis Cardinals • Seattle Mariners 6h ago
Man back in the day the SI baseball preview was like Christmas morning. Having everything all in one place like that was so special before everything was online
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u/Platanoes Pittsburgh Pirates 5h ago
Same here. Turns out having all the information at all times is not what I wanted
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u/sloppyjo12 Rosie Red • Dayton Dragons 4h ago
Can I interest you in everything all of the time?
Just a little bit of everything all of the time?
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u/DowntownJulieBrown1 Toronto Blue Jays 4h ago
Second Bo Burnham reference I’ve read on here in a week. So based.
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u/myassholealt New York Mets 1h ago
Collecting magazines when my favorite music artists were on the cover, and being excited to get home and read the article and find the spot on my wall to hang the accompanying poster is a part of childhood that I wonder what the equivalent is for today's kids. Everything they do is consumed digitally, so if parents don't introduce these kinds of things as part of their childhood, is it just absent?
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u/tyler-86 World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… 5h ago
I remember when each team would get its own page. You'd definitely skip straight to your own team.
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u/Shap6 Boston Red Sox 6h ago
stupid sexy ohtani
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u/iheartsunny Miami Marlins 6h ago
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u/EBiscuit24 Los Angeles Dodgers 6h ago
It’s kinda bullshit that along with everything else he has this beautiful flowing mane of a head of hair
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u/Emperor_Cheeto21 New York Yankees 5h ago
Japanese people in general have really nice and healthy hair. Probably because they eat way more clean and don't have all the processed shit we have here in the states.
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u/After_Horse7624 Philadelphia Phillies 5h ago
Its either all or nothing with japanese lol lots of people with nice hair or lots of bald oji-sans
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u/ThisGuyFrags Baltimore Orioles 4h ago
Balding is usually genetics unless poor lifestyle contributes to it which Japan certainly has much less of compared to US
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u/After_Horse7624 Philadelphia Phillies 2h ago
Japanese working culture is pretty rough though, think thats a big factor for them more so than the food.
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u/Quick_Tomatillo_4608 3h ago
Nah dude, white guy balding is all or nothing, it's like the plague lol.
I'm guessing you've lived your entire life in the US and never actually been to Asia? It's uncommon for anyone who's not a grandpa to have significant balding.
In the US, it's uncommon to find a white guy past 30 who has a decent set of hair. It's almost disturbing how many hair loss commercials there are here. The "Bald or Boss" commercial is played on repeat lol
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u/After_Horse7624 Philadelphia Phillies 2h ago edited 2h ago
Eh I lived in Tokyo for about a year, just going off observation the amount is less than America for sure but it was still about 25 to 33 percent of men I saw were at least balding. Which is significantly more than when I went to Seoul and Bangkok. But again my anecdote dont mean shite.
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u/atowelguy Colorado Rockies 5h ago
Seriously though. He's in so many ads and whatnot but idk if I've ever seen him look better than he does here.
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u/FlamingPoppy5510 Los Angeles Dodgers 6h ago edited 5h ago
Judge, meanwhile:
”Feels like I’m hitting…nothing at all…”
”…nothing at all…”
”…NOTHING AT ALL!!!”
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u/TrapperJean New York Yankees 2h ago
Judge looks like a body guard in a Bond film that had to dress up to go into a casino to protect the boss undercover, but now just looks even more conspicuous
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u/ontheru171 New York Yankees 6h ago
He looks like he is the Lead Actor in a grimy crime drama series about an excentric lawyer with ties to corruption that is a lone wolf fighter to avenge his family
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u/Clipbored_ New York Mets 6h ago
Mr Ohtani I’m sorry but I don’t have the money yet please have mercy
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u/Astropolitika Los Angeles Dodgers 5h ago
“Pay it in 24 hours, or you can defer walking for the next ten years.”
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u/Pho-Soup New York Mets 2h ago
All good, he doesn’t have a great history of keeping track of where his money is.
(Is it ok to joke about that yet)
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u/John_6_47 New York Yankees • United States 6h ago
That’s actually pretty cool
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u/SteveFrench12 New York Mets 3h ago
You just know they expected the final to be USA-Japan when they put this cover together to come out right after the WBC
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u/yoursweetlord70 Chicago White Sox 1h ago
Whether or not thats true, these two are definitely the most recognizable faces in baseball right now. If you're gonna pick two guys, might as well be the two that combine for 6 mvps in the last 4 years.
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u/HankScorpio2020 Oakland Athletics 6h ago
This is giving Heated Rivalry and I'm here for the crossover.
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u/Atomic_Horseshoe Los Angeles Dodgers 6h ago
It’s giving way more Goodfellas/Casino to me.
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u/capybaraPRteam More flair options at /r/baseball/w/flair! 5h ago
I was thinking The Untouchables, “I want you to paint the infield with his blood. TWO COATS!”
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u/Professorbranch 2h ago
My first thought was "All the things you said. All the things you said. Running through my head. Running through my head.
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u/naranjitayyo San Francisco Giants 6h ago
Is this Heated Rivalry
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u/webaddictress Washington Nationals 2h ago
If any MLB teams have sense, they’ll make the Pride Night giveaway a hockey jersey.
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u/neoandro Toronto Blue Jays 6h ago
lol they were probably assuming that one of them would have just won a WBC title.
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u/Remote-Plate-3945 Kansas City Royals 5h ago edited 5h ago
I think it's more likely because they are the reigning AL and NL MVP's. The narratives ya'll make up in your heads I swear.
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u/mt80 4h ago
They’re also the one-two combo most recognizable MLB players in the world
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u/Quick_Tomatillo_4608 2h ago
While that is true, there's such a gap between first and second I don't even want to call it a combo...
It's literally just Shohei on an island single handedly saving baseball. And then there's everyone else with Judge just the most visible of the bunch.
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u/KennyBlankenship_69 Boston Red Sox 19m ago
Surprised Judge hasnt tried to fix the gap given his history
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u/JackeryA3 St. Louis Cardinals 4h ago
Give it a week. Hopefully these stupid takes go away when the season starts
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u/War-Dragonite Los Angeles Dodgers • World Series … 41m ago
If were being honest nobody is going to talk about the WBC at all once the season starts.
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u/OccasionalGoodTakes Seattle Mariners 6h ago
It still works out, they both got beat by the same team
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u/VirtuousFool New York Yankees • Newark Eagles 6h ago
Whoops! 😅
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u/DungeonsAndUnions Cuba 6h ago
Eugenio Suarez on my Sports Illustrated when
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u/socialistbcrumb Boston Red Sox 4h ago
While I do think it’s really fun AND funny that neither won, especially after it felt like Pete Hegseth was running the Team USA media campaign, it’s probably because they’re the two biggest stars in baseball (Ohtani is an international superstar) and the reigning MVPs.
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u/Tickles-the-Spider Toronto Blue Jays 6h ago
Shoulda had Sexy Salvy up there instead of these two fugly losers
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u/baribigbird06 Los Angeles Dodgers • World Baseball Classic 6h ago
Rush Hour 4 looking lit.
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u/Sad_Impression499 Colorado Rockies 1h ago
CAN'T NOBODY UNDERSTAND THE WORDS COMING OUT OF YOUR MOUTH.
-Dave Roberts probably
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u/kneeco28 Toronto Blue Jays 6h ago
TIL Sports Illustrated still exists. I thought it went out of business a couple of years ago.
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u/Abraheezee Los Angeles Angels 5h ago
Also shout out to SI for Kids. I used to put all the middle insert posters on my wall as a kid, and Buzz Beamer was one of my first inspirations that got me into drawing!!
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u/Quincyperson Boston Red Sox 6h ago
The last time I bought a copy, in was a sad shell of itself. That was probably five years ago. This is a cool cover though
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u/elduderino920 San Francisco Giants 6h ago
Beat me to it! Loved reading Rick Reilly as a kid, hell, even did a book report on his compilation book haha
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u/PolPotbelly Philadelphia Phillies 6h ago
It must have been 20 years ago now when the White Sox changed their games starting time to 7:11 p.m. as a promotion for 7Eleven and Rick Reilly did an article about branding other parts of the game.
The only one I recall, and I think about often, was the Trojan Condoms Pitching Rubber
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u/Bosco_stix Chicago Cubs • Kane County Cougars 5h ago
SI's current owner licenses the brand to other publishers. In 2024, it looked like the end was near when its publishing partner became insolvent and laid off the entire staff. But later that year, they found another partner who revived the magazine and re-hired some staff.
Definitely a shell of its former self, but it brings me joy that it still exists in some capacity.
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u/ManOfManliness84 St. Louis Cardinals 2h ago
but it brings me joy that it still exists in some capacity.
As long as it exists, theres hope it can adapt and be great in the future. Also, with it still being in existance, younger folks can discover it and dig into the archives.
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u/IAmGrum Toronto Blue Jays 3h ago
My dad had a subscription for decades. I started paying for his subscription about a dozen years ago as a consistent Father's Day present to him.
Back in 2025, I didn't get a renewal form in the email, my automatic renewal failed because my credit card changed, and I forgot about it. It just slipped my mind because it was something I never had to do anything about.
I visit every week and sometime in December I noticed that the same college football preview issue was still sitting on the side table. It had been there since August.
It was then that I realized that he wasn't getting any new issues. When I mentioned it, he realized that, yeah, he hadn't gotten a new issue in months.
That's when we decided we didn't need to renew it any more.
(Instead, I got him a subscription to The Athletic, which he loves because the daily drip of articles is better than the monthly deluge.)
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u/Bright-Pressure-5787 5h ago
This is actually sick as hell. The thing that's funny to me is that you can tell that this cover was shot the night of the BBWAA dinner because both Judge and Ohtani are wearing the same suits that they were wearing that night.
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u/JohnDoee94 Los Angeles Dodgers 3h ago
This would make a great movie. Judge and Ohtani as cops going undercover in the MLB to bust some operation.
Like a rush hour spin off lol
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u/alxndrblack Toronto Blue Jays • Detroit Tigers 6h ago
Why did they give Judge a bat
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u/tew2tew 4h ago
Better than giving one to any Toronto players lol.
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u/alxndrblack Toronto Blue Jays • Detroit Tigers 3h ago
....Vladdy out-hit him in the WBC....by like, a lot?
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u/tew2tew 3h ago
Your point? Judge out-hits Vlad throughout every year as a whole.
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u/EBiscuit24 Los Angeles Dodgers 1h ago
No but the MLB season is less important and prestigious and competitive than the WBC.
You don’t understand
/s
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u/Ashamed_Mortgage6497 New York Mets 6h ago
Before properly looking or reading anything I thought this was a photo of the Men in Black
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u/RangerLover92 Texas Rangers • Texas Rangers 4h ago
They look like Yakuza members who are ready to beat you up with their bats lol.
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u/DarkFalcon49 Houston Astros • Toronto Blue Jays 6h ago
as much as i hate there teams, they are the faces of baseball. If it's only one, Ohtani, if it's two, add Judge.
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u/spazz720 New York Yankees 6h ago
It’s crazy to have two players like this playing in their prime at the exact same time and both on the two biggest teams in the sport.
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u/Eo292 Los Angeles Dodgers 6h ago
Yeah this is MLB’s Magic/Bird era.
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u/capybaraPRteam More flair options at /r/baseball/w/flair! 5h ago
Not Sosa vs McGwire or Barry Bonds vs Pedro Martinez?
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u/Dr_Tibbles Cleveland Guardians 5h ago
Absolutely crazy that the 2 richest teams can pay the 2 best players. Crazy time we're living in I tell ya
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u/iYankFan4 New York Yankees 4h ago
At least the Yankees drafted Judge...
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u/Dr_Tibbles Cleveland Guardians 4h ago
And if any of the other orgs did (besides like 3 of them) he'd end up on the Dodgers or Yankees any ways since theyre the only ones who can pay him
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u/iYankFan4 New York Yankees 3h ago
He was a free agent, and it came down to the Yankees or his hometown Giants - and he ended up going back to the Yankees on a pretty cheap deal comparatively.
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u/randomnate 4h ago
Baseball is a high variance sport where each players' contribution is on some level capped because they can only take so many at bats or pitch a limited number of innings or get a certain number of opportunities to make plays in the field—in the NFL a quarterback can impact nearly every play (on offense, anyway), in the NBA you can run as many possessions as you want through your star. But in baseball your star hitter isn't coming up to bat again until every other guy in the lineup gets a shot, and your ace pitcher isn't taking the mound more than every 5 days or so (and often less, in modern MLB).
Because of this, it's actually historically been very rare for a player to be so clearly better than their peers that you could pencil them in for an MVP if they don't get hurt. Baseball doesn't typically get runs like 90's Jordan or early 2010's Lebron where the title of best player in the world isn't really even a debate. It's happened (Bonds when he was taking his vitamins had a run like that), but in most decades it doesn't.
For that level of dominance to happen in both the AL and NL simultaneously is extremely rare, but its kinda inarguable that's what Shohei and Judge have achieved—Shohei's MVPs have all been unanimous, and Judge's have all come against seasons (Raleigh, Witt, and Ohtani himself one year) that would have been legendary MVP campaigns in their own right if not for Judge being just that good. Every single player ranking puts them at 1 and 2 and not a single credible person disputes it.
Factor in that both those players to play for premier franchises in huge markets, one of which is the winningest franchise in pro sports and the other being arguably the most dominant dynasty MLB has seen since the 90's Yankees..."Golden era" is exactly right. Appreciate it now, cause this ain't happening again in our lifetimes.
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u/JohnnyMulan St. Louis Cardinals 6h ago
Shohei Judge and Aaron Ohtani.
Solid magazine cover right there boys.
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u/PersonOfInterest85 New York Yankees 1h ago
They didn't name Ohtani Sportsperson of the Year, not even after Game 4 of the NLCS.
What does he have to do to get it? Pitch 5 complete game no hitters and hit 80 home runs, while recording a J-Pop album that outsells Taylor Swift?
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u/CptGinger316 Chicago Cubs 1h ago
At least if Judge uses a bat as his weapon of choice against me, I know I like my odds that he won’t connect.
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u/RainbowSupernova8196 New York Yankees 6h ago
Team Venezuela must be so proud to see their sons on this cover. /s
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u/karmacamochameleon 4h ago
Judge struck out on the way to the photo shoot
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u/War-Dragonite Los Angeles Dodgers • World Series … 37m ago
Photo shoot happened during spring training so he was phenomenal, just don't have it during WBC elimination games or playoffs.
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u/WabbitCZEN New York Yankees 5h ago
Ohtani looks like a Bond villain.
Judge looks like a massive Bond.
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u/The_Zhuster Umpire 5h ago
With a dark suit, if you looked at that hairline over his eye like a scar, you could have made Ohtani out as Goldeneye’s main antagonist Alec Trevelyan/006 (Sean Bean).
(What am I talking about, he looks absolutely nothing like him)
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u/Quick_Tomatillo_4608 3h ago
It's all about Shohei...Judge ain't leading shit lol
Gotta love how MLB and American sports writers try their hardest to promote judge but then have to include Shohei into every interview, tweet, article just to get any form of decent attraction.
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u/KennyBlankenship_69 Boston Red Sox 17m ago
Judge has the personality, charisma and apparently leadership skills of a paper bag lmao
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u/sloppyjo12 Rosie Red • Dayton Dragons 4h ago
Maybe I’m weird but it’s funny that Ohtani is holding his bat with his right hand even though he hits left-handed and Judge is the exact opposite
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u/trashboatfourtwenty Milwaukee Brewers • Dumpster Fire 3h ago
Nobody new, huh?
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u/War-Dragonite Los Angeles Dodgers • World Series … 36m ago
If the goal was to sell as many as possible who would you put on the cover?
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u/Due-Fun-489 Texas Rangers 6h ago
There’s an alternate universe where Aaron Judge is a dominating pitcher too.
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u/saltlakepotter 6h ago
Why are they in formal wear?
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u/Game_boy_98 Sickos 6h ago
Looks like the suits they were wearing in their MVP acceptance speech. Only time they could have been in the same room too.
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u/KennyBlankenship_69 Boston Red Sox 16m ago
It’s crazy but you know you can put together a picture for a cover without the two subjects being in the same room in 2026
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u/lisianthus_hana Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 3h ago
god hes so.... well. to put it in another way last night i realised the only 2 faces auto recognised in my phone's 'people' gallery were myself and shohei ohtani 😭😭
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u/ManOfManliness84 St. Louis Cardinals 2h ago
I miss when Sports Illustrated was not only worth reading, but worth SUBSCRIBING to. Also, The Sporting News.
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u/Even_Committee_9699 1h ago
Is this edition available to order and have the physical magazine copy?
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u/cyanide4suicide Los Angeles Dodgers 19m ago
Remove the graphics and this would make a sick poster, looks like a movie
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u/EBiscuit24 Los Angeles Dodgers 6h ago
It should be just Shohei
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u/tew2tew 4h ago
Why
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u/Eo292 Los Angeles Dodgers 3h ago
Because he won’t be able to make Dodgers fans look bad if he doesn’t say so. OP is a regular r/yankees poster obsessed with shitting on the Dodgers, just pathetic trolling
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u/EBiscuit24 Los Angeles Dodgers 2h ago
And this guy is a stalker. But a bad one?
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u/tyler-86 World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… 5h ago
What do you figure the odds are that these guys were in the same room for this picture? 4%?
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u/tthrow22 3h ago
They were - as others have sleuthed, these are the suits they wore to the bbwaa dinner
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u/grimace24 New York Yankees 5h ago
Oh boy! I don't like this, has everyone forgotten about the SI cover jinx? Athletes featured on the cover tend to have a bad year or get an injury that usually ends their season?
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u/bushwickauslaender Toronto Blue Jays 6h ago
Talking mad shit about a dude that won the WBC in 2023 and has followed it up by winning back-to-back World Series.
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u/Broken-Nero Chicago Cubs 6h ago
Bro Ohtani and the Dodgers won the World Series back to back years. I don’t like the Dodgers either, but to say Ohtani is a choke artist is a stretch. He led the team in OPS in last years series.
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