Shohei Ohtani Is Unstoppable.
The man they call "Shotime" has, once again, elevated his game. But will it all be for naught if October continues to elude him?
It’s Friday!
So here’s a story to take you into the weekend. Stay safe and thank you for reading! Your support means so much and I’m glad to have you here.
Ryan
Man, oh man, Shohei Ohtani.
The 28-year-old two-way superstar is, try as I might, indescribable.
Wholly unique, utterly incomparable, the best, bar-none, baseball player on the planet. A class, a tier, a stratosphere all his own.
Take a look at the home run he hit on Thursday night, already, his 22nd of the season, against the Texas Rangers in a game his Anaheim Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim would win 5-31.
I mean… holy hell!
That baseball travelled 443 feet, left his bat at 109.4 miles-per-hour and smacked off the second deck so hard, you’d think it was owned money.
On the broadcast, where Ohtani’s exploits have become commonplace over the past six seasons, appointment viewing globally, his superhuman highlights, the fuel that keeps the talk-show circuit going, even they were at a loss for words.
Remember that Seinfeld episode, where Jerry coaches George about “leaving on a high note” and always leaving your audience wanting more? That’d be me.
I’d pack it in right there, steal some iPad chargers from the dugout (you can never have enough of those) and be halfway through a bag of popcorn by the time I hit the parking lot.
That’s my peak, my career highlight, the story I tell my grandchildren. Forget it, I’m outta here, I’m going home, with wine in hand, to watch Below Deck: Sailing Yacht (which is actually quite good, thank you, I can hear you snickering).
Expect… Ohtani didn’t call it a night. He pitched too. And even when he didn’t necessarily have his best stuff, he pushed through and got the win.
Six innings, two earned runs, one batter walked. Three strikeouts.
As a batter himself? Two walks drawn and one heck of a home run hit.
Like… dude! What even is that?
Can you become desensitized to brilliance?
It isn’t a new phenomenon, especially in sports - there’s always a certain team, a specific player, that seems to be overlooked, pushed aside, given a big collective shrug.
But it has become more frequent, in my opinion, over the past few years, the ability of broadcasters and sportswriters, at one time, all but anonymous, save for their byline, to more publicly present a certain way of thinking. To push a specific narrative.
We’ve seen it in basketball, where LeBron James, at 38, a living legend in his sport, continues to defy all conventional wisdom surrounding the aging curve. But he’s, well, LeBron. And he’s been LeBron for twenty years. A standard set, a bar reached. So what?
We’ve seen it in hockey where Connor McDavid, the unquestioned, best player on the planet, must, every fall, be surrounded by doubt. Is he, though? Really? Because playoff seeding and powerplay points and even strength ice-time numbers…
And we saw it last year, in baseball, with Ohtani.
That isn’t to say Aaron Judge didn’t deserve it, his American League MVP. He most certainly did.
It takes a special kind of player to slash .311/.425/.686, score 132 runs and of course, break a long-held AL record with 62 homers2 (some would say it was also a baseball-wide record but, no thanks, it is almost the weekend, I’m not getting into that).
After parts of three seasons lost to the pandemic and injuries, he reminded the sport of his mesmerizing talent, the reason he hit 52 round-trippers as a rookie in 2017.
But it also takes a special kind of player to follow up an MVP-winning Campaign with something even better - and Ohtani did just that in 2022.
He hit 34 homers, had 95 RBI and stole 11 bases.
And on the mound? Sensational: 166 innings pitched, 15 wins, a 2.33 ERA, 219 strikeouts, an AL-leading 11.9 batters struck out per nine innings. He finished fourth in Cy Young voting.
You can see the difference.
While Judge was chasing history, the ghosts of Ruth and Maris, of New York Yankees past, Ohtani continued to make it, becoming the first player in the history of the sport with both 30 home runs and at least ten wins in the same season,
Additionally, he was the first player in baseball’s modern era to qualify for both batting and pitching leaderboards, which is just bananas to wrap your head around.
To be an elite hitter, that’s impressive. An elite pitcher? Impressive too. To be both, simultaneously, with a borderline top-end sprint speed, I mean, c’mon. Babe Ruth could only dream.
So what happened?
For one, Judge had the narrative, media support and yes, the incredible season. His MVP candidacy was locked down early and was never in doubt but he had the team success too. The Yankees made the playoffs, getting there, in part, because of Judge’s heroics.
The Angels, meanwhile, haven’t played a postseason game since 2014, even with the all-time talents of both Mike Trout and Ohtani playing at the peak of their powers (and less said about Albert Pujols, who, while an absolute legend, with 703 home runs to his name, never found his grove in Anaheim).
And the discourse quickly became toxic, uncomfortable, disappointing. To hear broadcasters discuss their picks, to read the comments on articles, replies to Tweets. To favour one player, Judge or Ohtani, was to completely disregard the other, even as they complied those mind-boggling, historic numbers.
I imagine that if you just mentioned Ohtani’s name in the Bronx last year, the response was probably pretty similar to asking Jim Norton for his opinion on Spider-Man.
But that was last year.
As of this writing, June 16th, the Angels are 39-32, 4.5 games out of first in the AL West. Per The Athletic, they haven’t been in this position, seven games above .500 at this point in the season since 2015.
They could do it. They could make the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade, giving their fans, who have been cursed with uber-talented individual players but collective mediocrity and awful ownership, something to cheer for.
They might have too, if only to keep Ohtani around, who’s contract status (or lack thereof) looms large over the franchise and their long-term future.
But for now, under the crisp California sun, we can just watch him play.
This publicly reserved, quiet guy, who jokes around with umpires and picks up stray garbage on his way to the dugout. Who can strike out the side, launch mammoth blasts into the upper deck and just might steal a base, all in the same inning.
Not yet July, he’s on pace to approach 50 homers for the second time in his career. He might even get there. Or surpass it, all while continuing to flummox opposing batters with his splitter pitch, one of the very best in baseball. A second MVP, hopefully without too much drama, is in the cards. It would be the capper on one of the most incredible three-season runs by any player this side of Koufax and Bonds.
It seems the only limit to what Shohei Ohtani can do, is not in our imaginations but a barrier to his own talent.
So far, there doesn't seem to be one.
I don’t care what Arte Moreno says, they play in Anaheim, dammit.