A month ago Dodgers gear festooned with colorful flowers in the unmistakable designs of acclaimed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami sold out in minutes at a pop-up on Fairfax Ave. A couple hundred Angelenos lined up overnight to purchase gear, generating $40 million.

The pop-up, called the MLB Tokyo Series collection, preceded the two-game, season-opening series in Japan between the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, and items soon hit the secondary market for four times the purchase price.

The merchandise was so popular that Murakami and the Dodgers responded by approximating the famous words of Hall of Fame Cubs shortstop Ernie Banks: "Let's play two!"

A new collection will be available April 28 during Japanese Heritage Night at Dodger Stadium and the Dodger Clubhouse store, then can be purchased only online. Murakami, 63, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch as he did before an exhibition between the Dodgers and Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome on March 15.

"It’s been two months since I started practicing for the first pitch in Tokyo, but given my age, it's not so easy to pick up new skills," Murakami said playfully in an interview with The Times. "Still, compared to the first day when I couldn't throw the ball at all, I've improved significantly.

"My hope this time is to throw the ball without it bouncing."

Read more:'Beautiful, happy, dopamine-injected.' Louis Vuitton and Takashi Murakami's frenzied comeback

Murakami is unquestionably adept with a brush, a pen or a computer, creating iconic art that features manga, anime, cartoons and brightly colored anthropomorphic cherry blossoms, mushrooms and assorted flowers. He began delivering commissioned projects for luxury brands and celebrities 20 years ago, and a financial pinnacle came in 2008 when his provocative life-size figure "My Lonesome Cowboy" sold for $15.1 million at auction.

Since then Murakami has integrated his art on Louis Vuitton handbags, a Kanye West album cover, and the Kid Cudi collaboration Kids See Ghosts. He also had a solo exhibition in 2022 at The Broad titled Takashi Murakami: Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow that included sculpture, painting, wallpaper and immersive installations.

Now his attention has turned to baseball. The MLB Tokyo Series collection had his familiar colorful flora sprinkled across jerseys, bats, balls, hoodies, flip-flops and a Shohei Ohtani bobblehead. The surprise medium might have been collaborating with Topps on baseball cards.

"Since 2023, I have been creating trading cards and trading card games with my team, so I felt I approached this project with a good understanding of the context," Murakami said. "But when we filmed the unboxing event for the Topps Complex Series and Tokyo Series on YouTube, I recognized anew how profound the world of American sports trading cards is, which shook me with excitement."

Read more:Review: Takashi Murakami captivates at Blum & Poe

The overall success of the Tokyo Series collection delighted Murakami, who said he remembers playing catch with his father as a child.

"Honestly, I had thought baseball wasn't as major a sport in Japan these days, so I was surprised by the overwhelming response," he said. "I received messages from childhood friends and was approached by neighbors afterwards, which made me realize that baseball remains the beloved sport among the Japanese public."

The addition of Japanese megastars Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki made collaborating with the Dodgers a natural. The team's popularity in Japan has never been greater.

"The Dodgers are the team Hideo Nomo joined when he first played Major League Baseball, overcoming various obstacles," Murakami said. "His success had a significant impact on Japanese players entering the majors, and his achievements are vivid in my memory.

"Shohei Ohtani joining the Dodgers feels like a fateful story for Japanese baseball, and I'm deeply moved by it. In that sense, I consider myself a Dodgers fan."

Read more:All eyes are on Ohtani in Tokyo | Dodgers Debate

Murakami added that he has felt comfortable in L.A. since his exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2007-2008.

"I believe my career as an artist in the contemporary art world took off in Los Angeles," he said. "The [MOCA] exhibition, curated by Paul Schimmel, was pivotal in establishing my career in America. Whenever I visit Los Angeles, I feel a strong connection, as if it's my second hometown, with fans saying hello to me around the city. So I'm especially grateful for this new relationship with the Dodgers in Los Angeles."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Why an Alcantara trade with Marlins should be on Red Sox' radar originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Red Sox made significant investments in their starting rotation last offseason, acquiring Garrett Crochet in a blockbuster trade while signing Walker Buehler and Patrick Sandoval in free agency.

But you could argue more investments are needed.

Crochet has been lights-out (1.13 ERA through five starts), but the rest of the staff has been average at best; 2024 All-Star Tanner Houck has allowed 21 runs in 24.2 innings (7.66 ERA), while Buehler needed a Patriots’ Day gem against the lowly Chicago White Sox to lower his ERA to 5.63.

Sean Newcomb, Richard Fitts and Hunter Dobbins have had some success in spot starts but are stopgaps for injured starters Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello, who both struggled with inconsistency in 2024. (Bello will make his 2025 debut Tuesday.) Entering Tuesday, Boston’s starters ranked 20th in MLB in WHIP (1.30) and 22nd in batting average against (.251).

That’s all to say the Red Sox would benefit from another quality starter. And while the MLB trade deadline is still three months away, Miami Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara is a name worth watching.

A two-time All-Star, Alcantara is in the second-to-last year of his contract with the rebuilding Marlins, who lost 100 games in 2024. Miami desperately needs hitting, and Alcantara would be a natural trade chip to acquire a young, impact bat. In fact, ESPN’s David Schoenfeld listed Alcantara as one of his top trade candidates to monitor as the deadline nears.

And if the Marlins want young, impact bats, there are few better places to look than Boston.

Seven of the Red Sox’ top eight prospects are position players, and while the “Big Three” of Roman Anthony (outfielder), Kristian Campbell (infielder) and Marcelo Mayer (infielder) draw all the headlines, there’s also the likes of middle infielder Franklin Arias — Boston’s No. 4 prospect and MLB.com’s 72nd overall prospect — outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia and middle infielder Yoelin Cespedes.

Arias and Cespedes are both 19 years old with tantalizing upside, while Garcia is a 22-year-old masher who hit 23 home runs with an .892 OPS over 107 games in the minors last season.

Could the Red Sox package some combination of those prospects in a trade for Alcantara? Or would they even consider trading Mayer, who was formerly Boston’s No. 1 prospect but has battled injuries and inconsistency in the minors to date?

At the very least, Boston should consider these scenarios when it comes to Alcantara, who is two seasons removed from winning the National League’s Cy Young award in 2022 with a 2.28 ERA over 32 starts. The 29-year-old missed the entire 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery and has scuffled early in 2025, but the potential clearly is there, and an extra year of team control on his contract ($21 million team option in 2027) only increases his value.

A lot can happen between now and July 31. But if the Red Sox are serious about contending in 2025, they should at least have irons in the fire regarding starting pitchers ahead of the deadline, and Alcantara should be at the top of their list.

When Tarik El-Abour was in middle school, his teacher asked him and his classmates a simple question. What do you want to be when you grow up? When it was time for him to answer, El-Abour gave a reply that thousands of children have said before. He wanted to be abaseball player. But his teacher shot back with something less than encouraging: “You’d better have a Plan B.” El-Abour, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, remained undeterred. Rather than listening to his pessimistic instructor, he distanced himself from her.

He thought that if he continued to talk to her, she might convince him he was unable to achieve his goal. In the end, he was right, and the teacher was wrong. El-Abour grew up to become a baseball player after receiving a degree in business administration from Bristol University in California. He first played professionally in the Empire League, where he was named rookie of the year in 2016 and was an All-Star in 2017. Then, in 2018, he signed a deal with the Kansas City Royals, a franchise just three years removed from winning the World Series. He played outfield in the minor leagues during the 2018 season, flourishing under the mentorship of JD Nichols of World Wide Baseball Prospects and Reggie Sanders of the Royals, becoming the first recorded autistic player in MLB history.

Related: RFK’s statements prove autistic people and their families everywhere should fear Trump and his allies | John Harris

All of this will be news to the US health and human services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who said earlier this month that: “Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children … These are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”

El-Abour chooses to let Kennedy’s comments slide off him.

“When it comes to politics,” the 32-year-old tells the Guardian, “I’m so used to crazy stuff being said by people. I’m just in a spot where it doesn’t really get to me. I get that’s just how some things are. The way I look at it, the only things I care about are the things I have control over – like baseball and those I care about most.”

El-Abour, who is now playing in the Zone 22 scouting league in Los Angeles and hoping for another shot at the majors, says he doesn’t know what it’s like not to be autistic. But he explains that the way his brain works helps him focus and embrace repetition – both valuable qualities for a ballplayer. “Baseball requires a lot of repetition to be good at it,” he says. “And people with autism tend to be repetitive. I guess that’s maybe where it benefits me.”

Kennedy, a fan of doing his own research, may want to note that El-Abour is not the only autistic professional athlete in the US. Tony Snell, who also has two autistic sons, was diagnosed with autism. And he had a nine-year NBA career, playing on several teams, including the Chicago Bulls and New Orleans Pelicans. “Learning I have [autism] helped me understand my whole life,” said Snell in a recent interview. “This is why I am the way I am.” Joe Barksdale, who revealed in 2022 that he was diagnosed with autism, played eight years in the NFL. And Nascar driver Armani Williams also stated publicly he is autistic. Of course, there are more autistic athletes coming up in the ranks, too.

“It was a surprise when the [Kennedy] news came out last week,” El-Abour’s mother, Nadia, tells the Guardian. “I wanted to post something then Tarik said, ‘No, the [media] will take care of it.’ Tarik started laughing. He goes, ‘Oh, wow, why did he [Kennedy] choose baseball?’”

She says that, unlike some politicians today, her son is very logical. Many autistic people, she explains, don’t attach emotion to the truth. Something simply either is true or it isn’t. “They can’t understand why we don’t accept the truth,” Nadia says. It’s the same reasoning El-Abour employed when flouting his middle school teacher’s “Plan B” idea. In fact, he bristled at it so much that he didn’t even want to be around the energy of the school building, often crossing the street rather than walk near it.

“He doesn’t see obstacles,” Nadia says of her son. “He doesn’t think of ‘I can’t.’ He just thinks, ‘How … how can I do that?’”

El-Abour, who was non-verbal until he was about six years old, started playing baseball later in life, around 10 years old. At first, he was unsure if he liked the game, which his father signed him up for. But when he got into the batter’s box, something happened. He even gave up his spot as pitcher on the team because he was told pitchers don’t bat in the pros. From then on, he arranged his whole life around things that would make him be a better player. He painted an X on the garage to practice his throwing accuracy. He took fly balls into the night with his coaches. Rather than, as Kennedy would have us believe, baseball was something unattainable for El-Abour, it helped him blossom.

Indeed, El-Abour’s life is a far cry from the picture Kennedy Jr and others have tried to paint. But despite any number of ignorant comments, El-Abour says he’s grateful for who he is and proud of what he’s achieved so far in his life. He says “it’s an honor” that people ask him about his autism and he’s glad he can add to the conversation. “It’s very humbling,” El-Abour says, “to be possibly making an impact. Baseball really gave me something that I enjoy and love doing. It always gives me something to be motivated for and to be better at each day throughout my life. And that’s really good.”