Sasaki’s Press Conference: The Chair Incident Explained

[스타뉴스 | 김우종 기자]

One action by Rocky Sasaki (24), who is emerging as a hero in this year’s LA Dodgers’ postseason, is attracting a lot of attention. After confirming his advancement to the National League Championship League (NLCS), he smelled the chair he was going to sit on at the official press conference and requested a replacement. There was a reason. The player who sat on the chair before Sasaki was teammate Tyler Glasnow (32). It was right after the champagne party. Because he sat on the chair soaking wet, the chair was also wet. After the champagne party, Sasaki changed his clothes and held an official press conference. Sasaki, who felt uncomfortable just sitting down, calmly requested a replacement chair.

Japanese media outlet Full Count reported on the 11th, “Sasaki is causing laughter by showing unexpected behavior right before the official press conference.”

Sasaki made a relief appearance in the 8th inning with both teams tied 1-1 in Game 4 of the 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) Postseason National League Division Series (best of 5) against the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California on the 10th (Korean time) and pitched 3 perfect innings. The pitch unfolded.

Amid Sasaki’s fight, the Dodgers achieved a thrilling 2-1 comeback win in the 11th inning. As a result, the Dodgers succeeded in advancing to the Championship Series (best of 7 games) with a series record of 3 wins and 1 loss.

Full Count reported, “After the game, a champagne party was held for the Dodgers players. The party started with Manager Dave Roberts shouting ‘Cheers.’”

The players who dramatically advanced to the championship series enjoyed a crazy champagne party. The same goes for Kim Hye-seong, a ‘Korean major leaguer’ who plays for the Dodgers. All Dodgers players, including Asian players such as Kim Hye-sung, Shohei Otani, Sasaki, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, shared in the joy.

Among these, of course, was Glasnow. Glasnow took the mound as a starter that day and laid the foundation for the team’s victory by pitching 6 innings, allowing 2 hits, 3 walks, striking out 8, and allowing no runs.

After the champagne party, Glasnow entered the official press conference room to be interviewed. However, he did not change his clothes and was still wearing his wet t-shirt. Glasnow went into the interview wearing goggles.

The next player to be interviewed was Sasaki. Sasaki appeared to have some time to spare and entered the press conference with clean clothes. Finally, the moment I was about to sit down on the chair on the podium. Sasaki smelled the chair. Of course, it smelled like champagne and beer. It is said that Sasaki immediately requested a replacement chair and then began the interview. Then, the interpreter who was present immediately gave up the chair he was sitting on.

Full Count said, “Sasaki smelled the chair before he sat down. And then he found out that Glasnow was sitting there.” He added, “Fans responded by saying things like, ‘It’s so funny to see Sasaki smelling the chair,’ and ‘I can’t hate him.’” In an article published on Yahoo Sports, readers also left comments such as ‘I like the interpreter’ and ‘The team will take care of it.’

Reporter Kim Woo-jong woodybell@mtstarnews.com