Don’t be surprised if you see a “WANTED” poster for Shohei Ohtani in Toronto. The bounty? $700 million. We’re joking, of course… mostly. The Ohtani-Toronto drama has everything from a high-stakes courtship, a public rejection, to a World Series showdown. And this modern classic is sometimes even taking over the 2025 World Series.

When Ohtani visited Toronto for Games 1 and 2, the Blue Jays fans booed him loudly during every introduction. They filled the Rogers Center with chants of “We don’t need you!” And Ohtani? just smiled. He later joked that his wife “really appreciated it,” and even said she now teases him with the chant at home. But the World Series just started right back where it was before, when the Dodgers tied it in Game 2.

Now, the series has come to Los Angeles for Game 3, but the Toronto grudge came with it. During Game 3 at Dodger Stadium, Canadian pop star Justin Bieber was in the crowd, cheering for the Jays, wearing a Blue Jays jersey. And in the third inning, Ohtani crushed a solo home run off Max Scherzer that gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead after a double in his first at-bat. The broadcast cameras quickly found Bieber after that, where he was giving a salty thumbs-down gesture. MLB’s official X account immediately posted the clip, captioning it: “Justin Bieber’s reaction to Shohei Ohtani’s home run 👎😂”.

It’s easy to see why Bieber and the Jays fans are so salty. It’s tough to ignore how Ohtani spoiled their party single-handedly. That home run in Game 3 was his seventh of this postseason, which gave the Dodgers an early 2-0 lead.

But “Shotime” wasn’t finished. It came after his first innings double. And when Alejandro Kirk’s three-run homer and Andres Gimenez’s RBI gave Toronto a 4-2 lead, he ripped an RBI double to cut the lead to 4-3 after Kike Hernandez’s single in the middle, and later scored in a Freddie Freeman hit that tied the game.

Then again, Toronto gets an edge with Bo Bichette’s RBI in the bottom of the seventh, but Shohei helps the Dodgers to back in the game with a seventh-inning homer, his second of the night. And so far as of writing, Ohtani was 4 for 4, scoring 3 runs in 4 hits and 2 homers.

He is the one player Toronto simply cannot get out in this game.

But Toronto’s grudge for Ohtani isn’t just about one game

It’s about a wound that never healed. The Blue Jays went all-in to sign Ohtani in December 2023, in the year when Ohtani hit free agency. They were one of two finalists, along with the Dodgers. Ohtani met with team officials at their Florida complex, and Toronto reportedly even gifted him a custom jacket for his famous dog, Decoy.

And the hope peaked on December 8, 2023, when media reports claimed Ohtani was on a private jet to Toronto to sign the deal. For a moment, the entire nation of Canada believed he was coming. Fans tracked the flight online.

Some even gathered at the airport for his arrival. But the report was wrong. The passenger was Canadian businessman Robert Herjavec, not Ohtani. It was a moment of public embarrassment for the entire nation.

And day later Ohtani announced he was signing a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers and praised the Blue Jays organization, calling them “very top class.” But it was not enough. Since then, every time the Dodgers are greeted with a heated welcome on their every tour to Toronto. And in Ohtani’s case, it reached its peak.

And though Blue Jays pitcher Chris Bassitt gave a simple warning to his own fans before the series: “Don’t poke the bear.” It seems they poked him, and now he is hitting home runs, and the drama is far from over. And the series is already tied after Game 2; it is now a best-of-five, with the next two games at Dodger Stadium.