LOS ANGELES (AP) — The first Shohei Ohtani bobblehead giveaway of the season snarled traffic outside Dodger Stadium on Thursday and created long lines of eager fans.
Cars snaked the roadways around Chavez Ravine and stadium parking lots were filling up quickly two hours before the Dodgers hosted Cincinnati in a city known for fans showing up late and leaving early. A line of fans waited on the sidewalk outside the main gate before it opened.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The first Shohei Ohtani bobblehead giveaway of the season snarled traffic outside Dodger Stadium on Thursday and created long lines of eager fans.
Los Angeles Dodgers fans wear Shohei Ohtani shirts as players workout before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Bobbleheads of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani are given to fans before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Fans carry bobbleheads of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Fans carry bobbleheads of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Fans carry bobbleheads of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Bobbleheads of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani are given to fans before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
“Shohei creates a stir,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “I can't imagine what it's like outside. It's great for Shohei and it's good for the Dodgers.”
Only the first 40,000 fans were to receive the bobblehead, which depicts a smiling Ohtani with his bat perched above his left shoulder. The box's design features Japanese anime.
“It's going to be a hot ticket item,” Roberts said. “The more I see him every day the more I realize how special of a person and a ballplayer he is.”
On eBay, the Ohtani giveaway was being offered for $150 and up with sellers advertising it as new in the box.
As a surprise, 1,700 road gray jersey bobbleheads were randomly mixed in with the giveaway. One was listed for $999.99 on eBay.
Game tickets were going from $168 to $388 with fees included on Stubhub.
Roberts and the rest of the Dodgers didn't need to worry about getting their hands on the souvenir. Boxes were set in each player's locker before the game.
“I get one for each bobblehead night,” Roberts said, “so I've got quite the collection.”
The Dodgers have scheduled three other Ohtani giveaways this season to mark his first year with the team after spending six seasons in Anaheim with the Angels. They will offer a hat, a second bobblehead and a shirt.
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Bobbleheads of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani are given to fans before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Los Angeles Dodgers fans wear Shohei Ohtani shirts as players workout before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Bobbleheads of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani are given to fans before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Fans carry bobbleheads of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Fans carry bobbleheads of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Fans carry bobbleheads of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Bobbleheads of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani are given to fans before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked to mend ties with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday and offered measured optimism about progress toward a cease-fire deal for Gaza as he neared the end of a contentious U.S. visit that put on display the growing American divisions over support for the Israeli-Hamas war.
At Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago estate, where the two men met face-to-face for the first time in nearly four years, Netanyahu told journalists he wanted to see U.S.-mediated talks succeed for a cease-fire and release of hostages.
“I hope so,” Netanyahu said, when reporters asked if his U.S. trip had made progress. While Netanyahu at home is increasingly accused of resisting a deal to end the 9-month-old war to stave off the potential collapse of his far-right government when it ends, he said Friday he was "certainly eager to have one. And we’re working on it.”
As president, Trump went well beyond his predecessors in fulfilling Netanyahu’s top wishes from the United States. Yet relations soured after Netanyahu became one of the first world leaders to congratulate Joe Biden for his 2020 presidential victory, which Trump continues to deny.
The two men now have a strong interest in restoring their relationship, both for the political support their alliance brings and for the luster it gives each with their conservative supporters.
A beaming Trump was waiting for Netanyahu on the stone steps outside his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida. He warmly clasped the hands of the Israeli leader.
“We’ve always had a great relationship,” Trump insisted before journalists. Asked as the two sat down in a muraled room for talks if Netanyahu’s trip to Mar-a-Lago was repairing their bond, Trump responded, “It was never bad.”
For both men, Friday’s meeting was aimed at highlighting for their home audiences their depiction of themselves as strong leaders who have gotten big things done on the world stage, and can again.
Netanyahu’s Florida trip followed a fiery address to a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday that defended his government’s conduct of the war and condemned American protesters galvanized by the killing of more than 39,000 Palestinians in the conflict.
On Thursday, Netanyahu had met in Washington with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who appears on track to becoming the new Democratic presidential nominee after Biden decided to step out of the race. Both pressed the Israeli leader to work quickly to wrap up a deal to bring a cease-fire and release hostages held by Hamas.
Trump’s campaign said he pledged in Friday's meeting to “make every effort to bring peace to the Middle East” and combat antisemitism on college campuses if American voters elect him to the presidency in November.
Netanyahu handed Trump a framed photo that the Israeli leader said showed a child who has been held hostage by Hamas-led militants since the first hours of the war. “We’ll get it taken care of,” Trump assured him.
In a speech later Friday before a group of young Christian conservatives, Trump said he also asked Netanyahu during their meeting how “a Jewish person, or a person that loves Israel” can vote for Democrats.
He also laced into Harris for missing Netanyahu's speech and claimed she “doesn’t like Jewish people” and “doesn’t like Israel." Harris has been married to a Jewish man for a decade.
For Trump, the meeting was a chance to be cast as an ally and statesman, as well as to sharpen efforts by Republicans to portray themselves as the party most loyal to Israel.
Divisions among Americans over U.S. support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza have opened cracks in years of strong bipartisan backing for Israel, the biggest recipient of U.S. aid.
For Netanyahu, repairing relations with Trump is imperative given the prospect that Trump may once again become president of the United States, which is Israel’s vital arms supplier and protector.
One gamble for Netanyahu is whether he could get more of the terms he wants in any deal on a Gaza cease-fire and hostage release, and in his much hoped-for closing of a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, if he waits out the Biden administration in hopes that Trump wins.
“Benjamin Netanyahu has spent much of his career in the last two decades in tethering himself to the Republican Party,” said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. diplomat for Arab-Israeli negotiations, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
For the next six months, that means “mending ties with an irascible, angry president," Miller said, meaning Trump.
Netanyahu and Trump last met at a September 2020 White House signing ceremony for the signature diplomatic achievement of both men’s political careers. It was an accord brokered by the Trump administration in which the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel.
For Israel, it amounted to the two countries formally recognizing it for the first time. It was a major step in what Israel hoped would be an easing of tensions and a broadening of economic ties with its Arab neighbors.
In public postings and statements after his break with Netanyahu, Trump portrayed himself as having stuck his neck out for Israel as president, and Netanyahu paying him back with disloyalty.
He also has criticized Netanyahu on other points, faulting him as “not prepared” for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that started the war in Gaza, for example.
In his high-profile speech to Congress on Wednesday and again Friday at Mar-a-Lago, Netanyahu poured praise on Trump, calling the regional accords Trump helped broker historic and thanking him “for all the things he did for Israel.”
Netanyahu listed actions by the Trump administration long-sought by Israeli governments — the U.S. officially saying Israel had sovereignty over the Golan Heights, captured from Syria during a 1967 war; a tougher U.S. policy toward Iran; and Trump declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel, breaking with longstanding U.S. policy that Jerusalem's status should be decided in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
“I appreciated that,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, referring to Netanyahu's praise.
Trump has repeatedly urged that Israel with U.S. support “finish the job” in Gaza and destroy Hamas, but he hasn’t elaborated on how.
Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, Adriana Gomez Licon in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Jill Colvin in New York contributed. Knickmeyer reported from Washington. Price reported from New York.
Follow the AP's coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at the Turning Point Believers' Summit, Friday, July 26, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump listens as he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks while meeting with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
FILE - President Donald Trump, right, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Sept. 15, 2020, at the White House in Washington. Trump is due to talk face-to-face with Netanyahu for the first time in nearly four years. The meeting Friday, July 26, 2024, at Mar-a-Lago will mend a break that has lasted since 2021. Trump at the time blasted Netanyahu for being one of the first leaders to congratulate President Joe Biden for his election victory. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
