We'll get to the chunky octopus in a moment, but let's start with the golden ticket.

Baseball's golden ticket. Major League Baseball has a once-in-a-lifetime player in the World Series, a once-in-a-lifetime Titans matchup, a blessed chance to recapture at least some of the truth behind the term “national pastime.”

Shohei Ohtani steps onto baseball's biggest stage for the first time after becoming the first player in the league's 148-year history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season.

Ohtani! Aaron Richter! The Dodgers! The New York Yankees! In the last century, this World Series would have sold itself.

Today? Skepticism is high, even among one of the most observant former players, Brandon McCarthy, who played for the Dodgers and Yankees.

McCarthy’s X contribution to this World Series: “Yankees/Dodgers. Ohtani&Betts/Judge&Soto. MLB better be ready to market its ass. This needs to be the national conversation.”

I ran this by the MLB marketing guy.

“I completely agree with his tweet,” said Noah Garden, MLB deputy commissioner for business and media.

You'll hear a lot about improved ratings during the World Series. Don't pay attention. Of course, more people will be watching this year. The participating teams represent the two largest cities in the United States.

In this century, as football dominates our sporting lives, baseball has reverted to local dominance. You'll watch the home team day after day and all summer long, but the casual fan has little interest in the other 29 teams or their stars.

Baseball isn't dying. But if MLB can't take advantage of a World Series with its two most valuable players and its two most famous teams, the national conversation could continue without baseball.

“Every station I turn on in the morning is talking about it,” Garden said, “whether it's radio stations, whether it's television stations, whether it's newscasts.”

“This has clearly broken through. This is part of the national conversation. Whether it’s the crazy ticket prices or the excitement of seeing Ohtani on the national stage for the first time, there’s just so much.”

Garden lives in New York, so of course there is that too. But he insists he hears similar stories “everywhere,” across the United States and also in Japan.

Since the start of the postseason, the league has featured a video spot featuring Ohtani and Judge with the slogan “Once in a Lifetime.” Twice.” The spot appears not only in postseason broadcasts, but also in football broadcasts as well as on Netflix, TikTok and YouTube.

The league purchased digital billboards in well-known locations such as Times Square in New York and the Grove in Los Angeles. A promotion is scheduled for Friday at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The league also installed 113 digital billboards in Tokyo, 113 of which represented Ohtani's total number of stolen bases (59) and home runs (54).

On social media, the league is mobilizing content creators who target a younger audience who are far more likely to check their phones than watch TV. They talk about baseball, but also about culture and music between the West Coast and East Coast.

Yankee Aaron Judge holds up a bottle of champagne as he and his teammates celebrate in the clubhouse after beating the Guardians and reaching the World Series.

(Godofredo A. Vasquez / Associated Press)

What Ohtani and Judge could offer is a chance for personalities to transcend the sport, just as casual basketball fans might have embraced Kobe and Shaq without any knowledge of the Lakers or the NBA.

Ohtani sold the most MLB jerseys this season. Judge placed third behind Bryce Harper. As regional sports networks implode and MLB hopes to launch national streaming packages, the league needs fans to embrace players who can be identified by a name, even if they don't play for your team.

“Kids walking around with Judge and Ohtani jerseys, which aren’t just in New York and LA, that’s the beginning of that transition,” Garden said. “If this can help accelerate this, which I would expect based on what we are seeing, then that will further drive our sport forward nationally and internationally.

“That’s our strategy.”

The Dodgers have already implemented an Ohtani strategy and won.

More people watched the first game of the National League Championship Series in Japan than in the United States, even though the game was played on a Sunday evening here and a Monday morning there, where the population is one-third that of the United States

Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto jerseys and jerseys are on display at team store kiosks in the Dodger Stadium concourse.

(Bill Shaikin / Los Angeles Times)

When the Dodgers open their season in Japan next March, they could do so as World Series champions, with the best player in the world making his homecoming.

Ohtani isn't playing as a pitcher this season, but he's still a two-way player: designated hitter and tourist attraction.

“It’s unbelievable,” Dodgers president Stan Kasten said. “I can’t walk to any part of my stadium for a day and not come across a tour group.”

The Dodgers led the way in home attendance this year, as they have every year since 2013, and also in away attendance this year.

Corporate sponsors, wanting to participate in Ohtanimania without paying for a full season, purchased advertising from opposing teams for the few games Ohtani might play at a visiting stadium, rather than the 80 regular-season games he would play at Dodger Stadium could dispute.

Shohei Ohtani vs. Aaron Judge is one of the many storylines that MLB will address during the World Series.

Don't worry about the Dodgers. In the first eight weeks of this season alone, the Dodgers announced sponsorship deals with ten Japanese companies.

The Angels, Ohtani's former employers, generated $10 million to $20 million annually in Japanese sponsorship revenue. In Ohtani's first season in Los Angeles, the Dodgers generated well over $50 million in Japanese sponsorship revenue.

Ohtani agreed to play for $2 million this season, allowing the Dodgers to defer the remaining $68 million and allocate funds to strengthen the roster. The signing bonus for Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto: $50 million.

Ohtani alone generated an estimated $65 million in sponsorship revenue, Sportico reported earlier this season, and has added millions more since then. The next MLB players on Sportico's list: Harper at $7 million, followed by Judge at $6 million.

The Dodgers have two Asian airlines as sponsors. Japan Air Lines is not one of them, but JAL has contracts with Ohtani and MLB. The company recently decorated one of its planes with images of Ohtani and called it the “Dream Sho Jet.”

The Dodgers already had a significant history in Japan, dating back to team trips there for exhibition games and the signing of Hideo Nomo.

Kasten said: “It was a good thing for the MLB. They have also expanded their international sponsorship business. This is money we all share. So it was good all around: the combination of Shohei’s profile, the Dodgers and our history is an example of baseball doing its best.”

The Dodgers' mission in Japan is clear: to become the team of choice for Japanese players and fans and to make the Dodgers logo ubiquitous there, much as the Yankees logo has been a global cultural icon for decades.

A sign in the concourse of Dodger Stadium explains to fans the ingredients of the Japanese street food takoyaki.

(Bill Shaikin / Los Angeles Times)

And when Japanese fans flock to Dodger Stadium, you'll want to feed them. That brings us back to the chunky octopus.

Take a stroll through the concourse on the field level and you'll see portable merchandise stands with T-shirts and jerseys for sale: most with the name Ohtani, some with the name Yamamoto, and hardly any with anyone else's name. not even Betts. (The larger team stores have a larger selection.)

You'll also see concession stands selling Asian food and drinks, much more than just sushi. One of the offerings: Takoyaki, sold next to a colorful poster explaining that Takoyaki is a “popular Japanese street food…doughnuts with various delicious toppings.”

What's inside? Chunky octopus bites.