Shohei Ohtani makes baseball history (again).
He is the first player ever to have a 50/50 season.
Let it be stated here, for the record.
I consider my words eaten.
When he signed his record-setting, ten-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers last December (which remains, as of this writing, the largest contract in pro sports all-time) I was doubtful that Shohei Ohtani, for all his history-making aptitude, could live up to such promise.
Sure, while he was coming off perhaps the greatest three-year stretch of individual baseball ever (as both a Cy Young-nominated pitcher and one of the best hitters in the sport) there weren’t any guarantees.
It was known he wouldn’t pitch at all in 2024, as he recovered from elbow surgery and as he entered his 30s, maintaining that pace, as is true for so many high-level athletes, could prove challenging.
Here’s what I wrote then, speaking on both Ohtani and the Dodgers as a whole:
As transcendent as Ohtani might be, I don’t care who you are - that’s a lotta money to be paying a guy to play on just one side of the ball.
Instead, I suspect they’ll get flashes of brilliance but not the sustained history book rewriting that we’ve become accustomed too. In his early-to-mid thirties, having dealt with major injuries, it goes against too much realism, too much general thinking.
If anyone can disprove that, of course, it is Ohtani and these are words I’ll gladly (if somewhat reluctantly eat) if the Dodgers can, with this signing, succeed in their obvious goal (if not winning one championship within the next few years, then several).
But it is, ultimately, deferred money and strong pre-existing foundation be dammed, a gamble. A big one.
Ryan Milford from Off-Balance, known moron - December 11, 2023
To be fair, to be fair, I did give myself an out.
But in making history on Thursday evening against the Marlins in the most dramatic fashion possible, to become the first player ever to achieve a 50/50 (and then, a 51/51) season?
He left no doubt.
He is the most singularly unique baseball player on the planet, perhaps ever and he will continue to be so until he decides otherwise.
Heck, the digital ink wasn’t even dry on the celebratory 50/50 posts before, just a half-hour later, he hit another home run. After all, 50 homers? That’s last year, bro. Ohtani’s final line on Thursday, as the Dodgers clobbered the Marlins, 20-4?
6-6.
Three home runs (49, 50 and 51 on the season).
Ten RBI.
Two stolen bases.
And history, all the way around.
With a walk-off grand slam at the end of August, not only did he become just the sixth player to ever reach the 40/40 milestone, he also did it faster than anyone else too, in 126 games.
The ultimate measure of speed-and-power on the diamond, achieved by a pitcher who is technically rehabbing.
His September then, with the Dodgers continually jostling for first in NL West, has been nothing but a march towards history: the first to 50/50 (Ronald Acuña Jr, in 2023, had come the closet previously, as he finished his NL MVP-winning season with 41 home runs and 73 stolen bases).
Ohtani’s successful chase to the record though, over the past few weeks, has proven to be a fascinating focal point in the ever-online discourse. More so than usual, as it relates to the two-way superstar, with MLB posting every stolen base and every homer, as it became clear that such milestones were in sight.
And of course, people complained, in comment threads, on message boards and under every one of those social media posts because hey, that’s what we do.
Ohtani? Overhyped, overrated and overpaid.
And the Dodgers? Well, unless you’re from/living in Southern California or are one of the rare few now, who can remember their days in Brooklyn, listen man, nobody likes the Dodgers.
But as I’ve said more than once, especially as it relates to Ohtani, it helps to keep some perspective in mind.
Nobody can do what he does, heck, nobody has done it in well over a century. And even in a season where he’s only playing at half-capacity?
He’s still incomparable.
Dislike the ubiquity of his media coverage, if you must. Dislike the Dodgers. Dislike the fact that the gambling scandal that saw Ohtani’s now-former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, pleading guilty to bank and tax fraud earlier this year, did little to shake a pristine public image (in the aftermath, Ohtani was fully cleared of any wrongdoing).
But appreciate the once-in-a-lifetime ability he brings every time he steps on the diamond, either behind the plate or in time once more, on the mound. The joy, the easy-going affability that goes hand-in-hand with such incredible talent.
And all due respect to Francisco Lindor, who has been terrific for the Mets but come the season’s end, there should be little question about who will be crowned the NL MVP. Although Ohtani and the Dodgers both, no doubt have bigger goals in mind, as October looms (with their win on Thursday, they clinched a playoff spot).
The team has assembled a bevy of All-Star talent in recent years but as they look to follow-up their 2020 World Series win? It will be with Ohtani leading the charge.
Even Mookie Betts, the Dodgers top dog, who is perhaps the most versatile player in baseball (and was in the thick of the MVP-discussion himself prior to going down with injury) acknowledged late last month that he (and the team at large) would be deferring to Ohtani:
I mean, I can’t say I’m better than Shohei. There’s nothing really you can say," Betts said. "Whatever Shohei says goes, and after that we kind of fall in line.
So wherever the Dodgers go, however far they go, from here and now, to any potential championship aspirations? It will be with Ohtani, as unassuming as ever, front-and-centre.
And then, there will be the rest of us: bearing witness to baseball history in real-time.
How cool is that?
Greater article! Look forward to the next one.