By now, the entire baseball world has grasped onto the phenomenon of St. Louis Cardinals star Lars Nootbaar.
Cardinals fans love his infectious energy and his fun-loving personality, as well as his play on the field.
They love him so much that they serenade him with chants of his name every time he comes through.
Last season, he pioneered the famous “grind the pepper” celebration, which has become popular all around the baseball world, even outside of St. Louis.
But it turns out that Nootbaar might be a pretty good motivational speaker as well.
On Twitter, Jim Hayes of Bally Sports Midwest posted a video of Nootbaar delivering a hype speech to fans in Japan while donning his World Baseball Classic uniform.
The world now belongs to Lars Nootbaar. #STLCards #TeamJapan pic.twitter.com/VugkV3fbx7
—Jim Hayes (@TheCatOnBallyTV) March 15, 2023
Nootbaar is of Japanese descent and dreamed of playing for Team Japan in the WBC as a child.
He now has that opportunity.
But fans in Japan love him too.
They clearly are enjoying his positive energy and goofy personality.
It has even gotten to the point where Shohei Ohtani is catching on to the pepper celebration and enjoying it at the same time.
The Cardinals enjoy having him around in the clubhouse and he has even earned the respect of veteran players such as Yadier Molina, Albert Pujols, Adam Wainwright, Paul Goldschmidt, and Nolan Arenado.
So naturally, he’s going to get a lot of respect in Japan as well.
But Nootbaar essentially has the entire world in the palm of his hand and commands respect wherever he goes.
NEXT:
Tyler O’Neill Continues To Rake In The WBC
