What’s Japan’s Pepper-Grinder Celebration That Shohei Ohtani Did At World Baseball Classic

The St. Louis Cardinals‘ emerging talent Lars Nootbaar is well-known for his distinctive and enduring pepper-grinder celebrations. So what is the background of the widely shared gesture?

What’s Japan’s Pepper-Grinder Celebration That Shohei Ohtani Did At World Baseball Classic

Before being selected by the Cardinals in the eighth round of the 2018 MLB draught, Nootbaar, a Southern California native, played collegiate baseball at the University of Southern California (USC). He rapidly established himself in the minor levels by demonstrating his tremendous work ethic and power-hitting skills.

Yet, Lars Nootbaar’s pepper-grinder celebration didn’t start to acquire popularity until his 2021 MLB rookie season. Both his teammates and the audience noticed the celebration, which quickly established itself as a standard element of Nootbaar’s post-home run routine. So where did the concept originate?

“We wanted a little hit celebration, something to do,” Nootbaar told reporters after the exhibition game. “We didn’t really know what to come up with. And so he said, ‘Whatever I go out there and do first, that’s what we’re gonna roll with.’ So, I went out [and got a hit] in the first inning, we got the pepper grinder out there. And you know, we kind of stuck with it.”

The well-known celebration began last year while he was playing for the Cardinals to serve as motivation for him and his teammates to grind out a few more hits or runs. It began as a way to inspire teammates to put in extra effort and ultimately caught the attention of the crowd. Since then, it has developed into a well-known gesture that has been made even more well-known by printed clothing and accessories.

Oh, yep, it suddenly became “a thing,” to the extent that an unnamed teammate purchased a pepper grinder for Nootbaar, which was then used as a prop in crucial situations in the dugout. They created t-shirts. It was printed signs. Y’know, “a thing.”

So when did Ohtani, one of Japan’s greatest idols, do it to commemorate the home run? It’s currently pretty much the biggest thing in Japan. And it’s rather astounding to consider how it came to be. Really, it’s almost incredible.

 

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