{"id":27486,"date":"2025-07-22T01:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T01:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/27486\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T01:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T01:45:11","slug":"shohei-ohtani-to-release-childrens-book-inspired-by-dog-decoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/27486\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani to Release Children&#8217;s Book Inspired by Dog Decoy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The book is available to preorder now, and follows Decoy as he throws the first pitch <\/p>\n<p class=\"pmc-ecomm-disclaimer\">\n\tIf you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/shohei-ohtani\/\" id=\"auto-tag_shohei-ohtani\" data-tag=\"shohei-ohtani\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shohei Ohtani<\/a> is adding children\u2019s book author to his resume. The two-way <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/dodgers\/\" id=\"auto-tag_dodgers\" data-tag=\"dodgers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dodgers<\/a> superstar will release Decoy Saves Opening Day on Feb. 3, 2026. It\u2019s inspired by his beloved Kooikerhondje, Decoy Ohtani, who has become something of an unofficial mascot among Dodgers fans due to his frequent appearances with Ohtani. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe book, from publisher HarperCollins, is written by Ohtani and Michael Blank, with illustrations by Fanny Liem. In the book, Decoy is supposed to throw the Opening Day pitch, but he forgets his lucky baseball at home and has to run to get it before it\u2019s too late. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/clicks.trx-hub.com\/xid\/pmc_0aaa4_rollingstone?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2F0063460777%3Ftag%3Drollingston07-20%26linkCode%3Dogi%26th%3D1%26psc%3D1%26language%3Den_US%26asc_source%3Dweb%26asc_campaign%3Dweb%26asc_refurl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.rollingstone.com%252Fproduct-recommendations%252Flifestyle%252Fshohei-ohtani-dog-childrens-book-order-online-1235390340%252F&amp;p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rollingstone.com%2Fproduct-recommendations%2Flifestyle%2Fshohei-ohtani-dog-childrens-book-order-online-1235390340%2F&amp;ref=pmcTrackonomicsReferrer&amp;event_type=click\" class=\"c-lazy-image__link lrv-a-unstyle-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/decoy-book.jpg\" alt=\"Shohei Ohtani to Release Children's Book Inspired by Dog Decoy\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"\" width=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe book is based (loosely, of course) on a real event, when Decoy \u201cthrew\u201d the first pitch during an August 2024 Dodgers home game. Decoy, wearing a #17 jersey, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3hNXCbSDBvc\" target=\"_blank\">ran the ball<\/a> from the pitcher\u2019s mound to Ohtani at home plate, making him the first dog to deliver the opening pitch (not for nothing, the game resulted in a Dodgers win). Ohtani <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DMOV9MXT6uS\/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1\" target=\"_blank\">shared a photo on Instagram<\/a> featuring Decoy next to the book. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe game also marked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/product-recommendations\/lifestyle\/where-to-find-shohei-ohtani-bobblehead-buy-online-1235090687\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shohei Ohtani bobblehead<\/a> night, with fans lining up to snag a limited edition bobblehead featuring Ohtani and Decoy. Decoy also accompanied Ohtani during the Dodgers\u2019 World Series Parade in November 2024, following the team\u2019s win over the Yankees in the 2024 World Series. <\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The book is available to preorder now, and follows Decoy as he throws the first pitch If you&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[223,4279,88,5090,11953,3956],"class_list":{"0":"post-27486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-dodgers","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-noads","12":"tag-rs-recommends","13":"tag-shohei-ohtani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}