Canada’s Largest Shohei Ohtani Fanclub. Instagram: @ohtanicanada

Excerpts from the Canadian Press article by Sharif Hassan:

“Toronto is home to many Ohtani fans, but few might match the enthusiasm of David Pollard, a former teacher who formed a fan club in hopes of encouraging the player to move to Toronto when the Jays first attempted to recruit him in 2018.

Pollard said he continued to run the Ohtani Canada Instagram account even though Ohtani chose another L.A. team at the time, the Los Angeles Angels, over the Jays. The account, which posts updates about the superstar, has more than 61,000 followers.

“If we had just Ohtani Canada fans, we would fill the stadium and not have enough room for everyone. It’s pretty phenomenal,” he said in a phone interview. “Why are we the fastest growing fan clubs? It’s because we focus on the goodness of the man and whenever we see it, we post it.”

Pollard said he has met Ohtani twice. He once gave him a pair of Canadian mittens, and the second time they acknowledged each other in passing, he said.

“He is a humble celebrity in the modern world,” he said of the player.

Pollard, a faculty adviser at the private Tyndale University, said he and members of the fan club who are mostly educators are now using Ohtani as an example when they teach kids about the importance of character.

“We looked at Ohtani and thought, ‘Wow, we’ve been handed this gift. This man is all about character,” he said.”

The full article can be found here: https://www.620ckrm.com/2025/10/28/why-shohei-ohtanis-fans-in-canada-and-beyond-say-hes-bigger-than-baseball/