The ticket cost him around $80. His blue Los Angeles Angels jersey was topped with a Japan cap. Hotaru Shiromizo, a baseball enthusiast, was talking about a lot more than the sensation that is Shohei Ohtani.
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When Shiromizu needed to explain some points in English, he turned to his translation app. “He’s a legendary player, but he’s more than just a good player,” he added. His goals and accomplishments inspired the entire Japanese nation.
The speaker said, “All the kids want to be like Ohtani.”
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Ohtani is the panacea, according to many.
a developing trend
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He represents the pinnacle of a long line of great Japanese baseball players that stretches back to 1872, when an American professor introduced the game to Japan. His notoriety has grown to eclipse that of predecessors like Ichiro Suzuki and Hideo Nomo.
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“I suppose the idolization of Ohtani in Japan reflects its own inferiority complex vis a vis the fatherland of baseball that is the U.S.,” said Koichi Nakano, a professor of politics and culture at Tokyo’s Sophia University.
Major League Baseball was founded in Japan; nonetheless, there is a long-held belief that yakyu baseball, as played in Japan, is fundamentally different from the’real’ baseball played in the United States. Nakano claimed that the topic had been the subject of numerous books. The Japanese are fascinated every time there is a famous Japanese “export” in Major League Baseball.
The enthusiasm around Ohtani, and the selling out of the Tokyo Dome, is also being fueled by the fans’ impatience to see him play in Japan again.
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When asked what Ohtani meant to Japan, businessman Keiichiro Shiotsuka said, “a treasure of Japan.”
There may never be another player like him again, so it’s great that he’s in Japan right now, he added.
ABILITY AND PERSONALITY
Ohtani’s stellar reputation stands beyond his abundant abilities. There were no major scandals. There are no gossip columns detailing his sociability. He has more endorsement money than any other major leaguer at $20 million. When he becomes a free agency at the end of this season, he has the opportunity to sign the richest contract in baseball history.
“He is very authentic,” said Masako Yamamoto, waiting in line for tickets with her son Shutaro, 12, and other family members outside the Tokyo Dome. A pulsating billboard with Ohtani’s likeness flashed in front of her.
“As a human being, he is polite and very charming and good to people,” she gushed. “He’s unique. His demeanor is well balanced. It’s like he’s the one who sets the mood.
Ohtani graduated from Hanamaki Higashi High School in Iwate prefecture, which is located in rural northeastern Japan and is known for its rigorous baseball program. Yusei Kikuchi, pitcher for the Blue Jays, went to the same high school as the author a few years before. There are those who see flaws in the military-style structure, but Ohtani is making it shine.
“Ohtani was raised in this Japanese, martial arts-inspired training system where you join a baseball team and you play year-round,” Robert Whiting, who has authored many books on Japanese baseball and has lived here on and off for 60 years, told The Associated Press in an interview last year.
When Ichiro was a freshman in high school, he was easily the greatest player on the squad. Unfortunately, he was injured and unable to contribute. He was responsible for doing the dishes and making the meals. In the middle of the night, he’d get up and practice his swing, according to Whiting. The identical may be said of Ohtani. During his first year of high school, he worked cleaning bathrooms.
Ohtani is the complete antithesis of the superior Ichiro. Ichiro is summed up by the Japanese adage “deru kugi wa utareru,” which means “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”
Whiting and others have cited a game between Japanese and Americans played in Yokohama in 1896 as a pivotal moment in the spread of baseball in Japan. Many of Japan’s winning players came from noble Samurai households.
This caused a major stir in Japanese media. It is believed that this win gave Japan the confidence it needed to begin modernizing after centuries of isolation and proved the country could hold its own against the more industrialized West.
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“Ohtani is the most recent of these idols, but he may be even bigger than any before him,” the political scientist Nakano said. Ohtani, he said, is the only player in the league with such a distinct profile because he bats and pitches like the old timers. “He is ‘Made in Japan,’ but more real now than American players.”