Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani Announces New Foundation to Help Children, Animals
Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani announced he’s created the Shohei Ohtani Family Foundation. He posted it on his Instagram story over the weekend.
Per the website, the foundation’s mission statement is “to create healthier, happier communities by funding initiatives that inspire children to stay active and live well, and by supporting programs that rescue, protect, and care for animals in need.”
Ohtani and his wife, Mamiko, celebrated the birth of their first daughter earlier this year. Ohtani also famously has a dog, Decoy. He always makes sure to highlight Decoy on his social media, showing his love for animals.
Ohtani is coming off a 2025 season in which he won his third straight MVP award and fourth in the last five years. All four have been unanimous, giving him the most unanimous MVPs in MLB history. His four MVPs trail only Barry Bonds, who has seven.
Ohtani has done nothing but win since joining the Dodgers ahead of the 2024 season on a 10-year, $700 million deal. The Dodgers have won the World Series in each of the last two years, with Ohtani contributing significantly both in the regular season and postseason. Ohtani won the NLCS MVP award in this year’s postseason.
Off the field, Ohtani has been extremely charitable, donating $500,000 to LA wildfire relief amid the January 2025 wildfires. In January 2024, Ohtani and the Dodgers pledged a $1 million donation toward earthquake in relief efforts in Japan. In late 2023, Ohtani donated 60,000 gloves to 20,000 elementary schools in Japan.
Why Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson didn’t care about breaking Micah Parsons’ contract record
Week 12’s wild escape against the Giants left Aidan Hutchinson thinking more about lessons than style points. Detroit blew coverages, missed tackles, and still found a way to win 34-27 in overtime, a result Hutchinson called the mark of a good team that can survive “all the bad stuff” and still finish. At 7-4 heading into a Thanksgiving showdown with the Packers, the Lions are learning how to win ugly.
That same perspective carried straight into Hutchinson’s contract negotiations. As detailed by ESPN, his camp had a clear choice: take Detroit’s latest offer, heavy on guarantees but shy of Micah Parsons’ massive $47 million-per-year deal with Green Bay, or drag things out in an effort to nudge the market even higher. The second route would have meant public pressure, holdout noise, and likely trade chatter. Hutchinson wanted no part of that.
Agent Mike McCartney told ESPN the talks were sometimes frustrating but never hostile, with both sides committed to staying at the table until they were satisfied.
In the end, the Lions put down roughly $180 million over four years, with about $45 million per season in new money, a figure that trails only Parsons among non-quarterbacks while still locking Hutchinson into Detroit long term.
Hutchinson admitted he understands the unwritten responsibility stars have to push the market, but he was blunt about his priorities. Chasing an extra one or two million or insisting on topping Parsons’ number simply was not worth prolonging the process when he already knew where he wanted to be.
Parsons remains the financial and statistical benchmark. As ESPN’s Rob Demovsky noted, the Packers star has posted at least 10 sacks in five straight seasons, a streak topped only by Reggie White since sacks became official in 1982. That is the rarefied air Hutchinson now lives in competitively, even if he chose not to chase Parsons dollar-for-dollar.
In his mind, securing life-changing guarantees, avoiding drama, and staying exactly where he wanted to play mattered more than winning the headline battle. If the Lions turn this core into deep playoff runs, no one in Detroit will care that his contract came in just below Micah Parsons’.
