TOKYO (AP) — Shohei Ohtani is doing things no other player has ever done, a point of pride for Japanese like Fumihiro Fujisawa.
Fujisawa is the president of the Association of American Baseball Research — similar in Japan to SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research. So he knows the numbers. But he has trouble recognizing Ohtani, who is built like a tight end in American football.
“In the last five years his body has become bigger and stronger. We see that he’s become an American — not a Japanese,” Fujisawa said.
There have been physical changes, added maturity and cultural adaptations. But make no mistake, Ohtani is “Made In Japan” — 100% — with roots deep in the Japanese countryside.
American Robert Whiting, who has written bestsellers about baseball in Japan, views Ohtani as the result of 150 years of baseball evolution. An American professor in Tokyo in 1872 introduced the game, which is known in Japanese as “yakyu,” or “field ball.”
Ohtani follows two other milestone players — pitcher Hideo Nomo, who joined the Dodgers in 1995, and Ichiro Suzuki, who has more than 3,000 hits and is likely headed to Cooperstown when he becomes eligible in 2025.
But there were always qualifiers with those two, and with others. When Nomo excelled, some dismissed him as only a pitcher. Japanese could pitch — they were technically proficient — but couldn’t make it as position players. Then Ichiro came along. Well, he could hit but not for power.
Now comes Ohtani. He pitches, he has power and he’s one player, not two. No asterisks or footnotes needed.
“Ohtani can defeat Americans on their own terms, or the Latin Americans for that matter,” Whiting told the AP. “I mean, he’s bigger than most of them. He’s stronger than most of…
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