On July 12, 2021, Shohei Ohtani became the first Japanese-born participant in the Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby, the annual home run hitting competition held the day before MLB’s All-Star Game. In the even more iconic All-Star Game, Ohtani pitched and hit as the first player ever appointed to the roster as a pitcher and a position player. This two-way phenomenon has dominated almost all the headlines this MLB season.
Shohei Ohtani, nicknamed “Shotime”, is a 27 year-old native Japanese baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels. He is a rare player who is very adept in both pitching and hitting. He is the starting LA Angels pitcher and has hit over 40 home runs this season. Ohtani’s jaw-dropping abilities and stats has drawn him numerous comparisons to baseball legend Babe Ruth.
Every superhero has a backstory. Before Ohtani became the two-way baseball superstar he is now, he played in Japan’s major leagues, setting comparable records as he has in the MLB. Similar to how he became the first player to hit and pitch to be selected to the MLB All-Star game roster, Ohtani captured the audiences as a two-way player at the Nippon Professional Baseball(NPB) All-Star Game in 2013, his rookie season. This was the beginning of his pro-ball journey.
In July of 2012, Jason Croskey was made aware of the phenomenon of Shohei Ohtani, when he set a Japanese high-school record by throwing a 160 kilometers-per-hour pitch. His unbelievable pitch made international news and attracted the attention of MLB scouts. However, back then he was only profiled as a pitcher, not a two-way player. Ohtani’s first look at pro ball was far from his native country. A few months after pitching for Japan in the U-18 world championships, he announced in advance of the NPB amateur draft that he had decided to sign for an MLB organization instead of the NPB. After his announcement, many big MLB teams – such as the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers – prepared to sign him, and other NPN clubs backed off. Only one NPB team, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, were determined to get his signature.
Trey Hillman, an American manager for the Fighters, influenced the Fighters to often defy Japanese baseball tradition, employing different tactics and approaches to practice. In 2012, when Hideki Kuriyama took the helm, he was determined to pave a way for Ohtani to join the team – and become a two-way player. When the Fighters picked Ohtani as their pick in the first round, Ohtani politely declined. “Right now, I am going to just practice in order to achieve my own goals,” he said.
Rather than giving up, the Fighters went to work. Ken Iwamoto, the team director of the Fighters, organized many discussions with Ohtani. At first, the scouting directors couldn’t read his mind. “Ohtani never changed, never expressed his feelings, didn’t show his mindset in his face at all,” Iwamoto says.
They continued to persist. The team made a presentation to Ohtani, listing examples that almost all Japanese who thrived in the MLB have passed through the NPB. They detailed the unappealing life that awaited him if he moved to the United States, which mostly included a long trek through the minor leagues. Most importantly, the Fighters baited Ohtani with a unique plan – to use Ohtani as the NPB’s only two-way player. In addition, they offered signing bonuses of roughly 1 million dollars and the maximum rookie salary. The Fighters were absolutely committed to signing Ohtani.
Ohtani’s sincere preference for skipping straight to the MLB helped him extract an unorthodox commitment from the fighters. Years later, he was able to secure the same promise from the LA Angels. “Had he gone to the states, there’s zero chance he would have been a two-way player,” said Jim Allen. Shohei Ohtani, donned a ‘once in a century’ player, has had an incredible rise to superstardom in the MLB world. He provides a big source of pride for the AAPI community and Japanese-Americans in the world of sports, especially in a time where Asian-Americans have faced barrages of hate and discrimination.
\”The only thing I can promise you is that I\’m going to play as hard as I can all the time and give 100 percent,\” Ohtani once told MLB.com. \”Hopefully, by doing that, I can inspire numerous people, maybe in their personal life, if they\’re having other issues, and cheer them up by watching me play. That would probably be the most honorable thing about playing baseball.\” This is only the start to Shohei Ohtani’s record-breaking career to the MLB.