"$1,000,000,000 in two seats" - Jack Flaherty describes Shohei Ohtani’s humility in moments with Yoshinobu Yamamoto using a hilarious analogy

The MLB world last offseason saw back-to-back deals where the LA Dodgers signed two-way star Shohei Ohtani (10-year, $700 million deal) followed by his teammate from Team Japan, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-year, $326.5 million). The sum of the two contracts is over a billion dollars.

Despite signing big-term contracts, Ohtani and Yamamoto are down to earth, with former Dodgers pitcher Jack Flaherty revealing an instance of the same.

On Sunday, Flaherty, on the "Throwbacks" podcast hosted by Matt Leinart and Jerry Ferrara, discussed the humility of the Japanese duo with a hilarious example.

"He's just not big-time at all," Flaherty said of Shohei Ohtani (45:12 onwards). "We had a couple of instances, like on a bus ride to the stadium or leaving the stadium to go to the plane. Everyone has their assigned seats, right? And Yamamoto was one of the last guys on. This happened a couple of times—you’ve got guys offering up their seats."

"But then he goes and sits next to Shohei, and Shohei’s much bigger than him—like, much bigger. He just sits on the inside, next to the window, and Yamamoto takes the whole aisle seat without any fuss. That, to me, shows who he is. He’s just chill, like, 'whatever,'" Flaherty continued.

"You’d have other guys with big egos who wouldn’t handle that the same way. And it was also pretty cool to think there was a billion dollars sitting in just two seats right there."

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Jack Flaherty reveals Shohei Ohtani's message after injuring shoulder in World Series Game 2

Shohei Ohtani was determined to win his first World Series with the Dodgers even if that meant he would have to turn up for the remainder of the series following a partial shoulder dislocation in Game 2 of the World Series.

In an attempt to steal second base in Game 2, during the slide, Ohtani put his weight on his shoulder, and the All-Star was seen grimmacing in pain thereafter. Following the game, Ohtani sent a message to Jack Flaherty:

“It was like ‘in 2020, [Cody] Bellinger hurt his shoulder and he came back. This year, it’ll be me, I’ll be fine.”

It happened in the seventh inning of that game. Despite his injury, Ohtani played for the Dodgers in the next three games. Although he didn't made any clutch home runs play, his sheer presence awarded him some walks at crucial time.

The Dodgers would go on to win the World Series in five games as Ohtani lifted the confetti for the first time.