It's hard to blame Toronto-born rapper Drake for the Blue Jays' inability to sign Shohei Ohtani, but Canadian baseball fans did their best Saturday after MLB's top free agent agreed to a record $700 million deal at the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Just 24 hours earlier, it appeared Ohtani might sign with the Blue Jays. Sources told Mail Sport that Toronto was leading the charge for Ohtani's signature, with other reports also claiming he was leaning toward joining the upstart Blue Jays.
Drake certainly got into the hype on Friday by posting a photo of himself on social media wearing an Ohtani jersey, which Jays fans are now seeing as the first sign of trouble.
“The Drake curse is undefeated,” one fan wrote on social media, referring to the perception that the 37-year-old Grammy winner curses the teams and athletes he supports.
He's been accused of cursing everyone from the 2016 Golden State Warriors to the 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team, and even though Drake's Raptors won a title that same year, the rapper regularly loses huge bets, including $1 million on the World Cup last year.
Is the Drake curse real? The Toronto-born rapper recently appeared in an Ohtani jersey
“The Drake Curse claims its biggest victim,” another fan wrote. “Ohtani on the Blue Jays.”
Of course, there are other reasons for Jays fans to be disappointed, namely false reports that Ohtani was headed to Toronto, ostensibly to sign with the team.
When MLB Network's Jon Morosi reported that the former Los Angeles Angels star was flying in Southern California, Blue Jays fans began following private jets in hopes of pinpointing Ohtani's exact location.
One flight in particular seemed destined to carry Ohtani after he left Anaheim – the city where Ohtani has played for the past six years.
But soon after, Bob Nightengale of USA Today and Jon Heyman of the New York Post both reported that Ohtani had never left his home in Southern California.
In what must have been a first for both men, Shohei Ohtani was mistaken for Robert Herjavec
Ultimately, CBC photographer Evan Mitsui confirmed that the private plane was not flying Ohtani to Toronto, but rather Canadian businessman and Shark Tank star Robert Herjavec.
The founder and CEO of global cybersecurity company Cyderes had some fun with the confusion by reposting the playful message from NFL Network's Rich Eisen on Friday night.
“To anyone hoping to spot Ohtani,” read Eisen's post on X, which shows a smiling Herjavec waving to a Shark Tank contestant.
Others also poked fun at the situation, but none more than Merriam-Webster, who confirmed that Ohtani is “not” in the company's “citation archives.”