As Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins trotted down the purple carpet with his girlfriend, Erika Hardy, before the Major League Baseball All-Star game in Denver earlier this month, they were styling in matching sunglasses with cloud-shaped lenses. The glasses symbolized the Akatsuki, a group of ninjas from one of his favorite television shows, “Naruto.”
Mullins has loved watching anime — a style of Japanese film and television animation — since he was a kid, but “Naruto” was the show that allowed him to appreciate the value of being yourself and overcoming any setbacks that came his way.