Shohei Ohtani is one of the greatest baseball players I have ever seen. He probably is the best player I have ever seen. And if I was to give my personal opinion I would say he is the greatest. Baseball has been played in America for about 200 years and professionally in America for about 150 years and there are many people who would say he is the best player ever. He has done something that no one really has done in recorded baseball history: pitch in a starting rotation and hit at the top of the batting order. He is like former US National Team coach and MLB Network Personality Mark DeRosa has said: “He’s what 90% of the Big Leaguers did at 12 years old. They dominated their town’s Little League, then they threw no-hitters.” Certainly being someone of Japanese background there is a special pleasure in enjoying Shohei’s success.
He is not only a pride of millions in the USA but millions more in Japan, Asia, Latin America and other parts of the world who love baseball. Shohei opts to speak in Japanese in interviews. It could be pride, comfort, unfamiliarity with other languages and cultures, but he is maybe the most famous and greatest Japanese person to ever live. I would argue he is the greatest Japanese person to ever live up to this point; and this is counting over a millenia of written documented history coming from the archipelago.
Leave a Reply