Baseball has been one of the most popular sports in the United States ever since the early 1840’s. Over the years, there have been many great players like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Roberto Clemente. The most famous player in today’s time is Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani was born on July 5, 1994, in Oshu, Japan. He grew up there with his parents and his brother. Early on, he showed an interest in baseball, practicing outside whenever he could and watching his favorite players on Major League Baseball (MLB).
He played for his high school team and was the star player. His father and coach helped him improve his game and both supported his dream of becoming a professional baseball player.
Immediately following his high school graduation, he started his career. He was drafted by the Hokkaido-Nippon Ham Fighters of the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan, which is where he played as a pitcher and outfielder. He made his debut and stayed on the team until 2017.
The Los Angeles Angels noticed Ohtani all the way in Japan and drafted him to play as a pitcher.
He moved to America in 2018 to play for the Angels and became one of the best players on the team.
He ended up being more than just a pitcher; he turned out to be a promising hitter as well. Shohei Ohtani played for the Angels for 5 years, majorly improving the team.
However, it wasn’t long before other teams noticed his talent and sought him out to play for them.
Almost every major baseball league in America tried to buy him out, including The Mets, The Yankees, The Chicago Cubs, and The Boston Red Socks. Despite all of these offers, Ohtani chose to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers when they offered him a whopping 700 million dollars.
Ohtani has many accomplishments including the world record he recently seton September 19. Ohtani hit50 home runs and stole 50 bases in one season. No one else has ever been able to do this before, making Ohtani the first in baseball history.
He has not only set a major world record, but he has broken many including breaking Hideki Matsui’s record for being the first Japanese-born player to achieve 40 home runs and 15 stolen bases in 115 games.
He has at least one run batted in (RBI), when a batter makes a play that allows a run to be scored, got credits for this.. He is the first Dodger in 69 years to achieve a record of nine constructive games with RBIs in a single season.
He also holds the leading batting average and places hits, runs, home runs, slugging percentage, and on base percentage plus slugging percentage (OPS)
Ohtani has other records including being the first player in the history of MLB to steal 20 or more bases and hit 10 or more home runs as a hitter.
He also carries the record of about 10 pitching appearances and at least 100 strikeouts all in the same season. This record led him to win the American League Most Valuable Player award in 2021.
With him being the only person to unanimously be selected the MVP twice, Ohtani is thought to be one of the most talented players in baseball history, and not only has he broken many records, he is also ranked third in the National League and fifth across MLB in RBIs.
Ohtani has many accomplishments in his baseball career, and many believe he still has more to come in the seasons ahead.