There is absolutely nothing to talk about except baseball… A local reporter in the U.S. testifies to Shohei Ohtani’s “too stoic professional life.

Last Updated on 09/01/2022 by てんしょく飯

Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels is playing both as a pitcher and a hitter this season. What did local reporters think of this unprecedented “two-sport athlete” from Japan? Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, a local newspaper, said, “Shohei Ohtani has never been the subject of rumors about his behavior outside the ballpark. He is so focused on baseball, which is probably why he has been so successful.

When he first came to the U.S., he was criticized as a “high school level hitter.

I have been working as a reporter for the Angels for about 10 years.

This means that I could have written a book, for example, about Mike Socia, the famous manager who won the 2002 World Series. I could have written a book about Albert Pujols, who is close to hitting 700 home runs, or about Mike Trout, the three-time MVP superstar.

But they are other “great managers” and “great players,” you know. Shohei Ohtani is completely isolated and special in the history of Major League Baseball, taking on a field where the only precedent is Babe Ruth, and he has already surpassed Ruth as a two-tool player.

Doubts swirled that Shohei Ohtani in spring training in February 2018 was not up to the level of the majors in both pitching and hitting. In fact, some scouts even anonymously criticized him as a “high school level hitter.

However, as soon as the season started in March, Otani silenced these skeptics with his ability. Seeing him like that, I began writing a book about Shohei Ohtani, “SHO-TIME: Shohei Ohtani, the Man Who Changed 120 Years of Major League Baseball History.

■He can’t throw the ball at all for seven months after the surgery.

The day of disappointment soon came: in June 2018, Ohtani broke his elbow and had to undergo Tommy John surgery in October of the same year. The manuscript he had been writing stopped, and he lost contact with his publisher.

Tommy John surgery is a transplant procedure performed when a pitcher faces a tear of the medial collateral ligament (UCL). The name of the pitcher who first underwent the surgery and recovered remains intact. Even after the surgery, it takes more than a year of rehabilitation.

Immediately after the surgery, the patient will have to wear a triangular hood (sling), but after a while, he will be able to go about his daily life. However, pitching is not possible. For a pitcher, not being able to pitch is like losing everything in life. After the surgery, you will not be able to “throw” at all for at least 7 to 8 months. I can’t even play catch, and I can’t imagine how depressing it must be to have such days continue for more than a year.

Being a hitter” is a mental relief

However, there was one thing that made Shohei Ohtani different from other pitchers. He is also a hitter. By the end of spring training in 2019, the following year, he was already swinging a bat and resuming hitting practice, and by May 10, he was fully ready to compete in major league games as a hitter.

The two-sport swing is unprecedented, so the physical demands are very heavy, but from a mental standpoint, he was not completely deprived of baseball, so it is good for him.

However, Shohei Ohtani is only a Shohei Ohtani if he can both pitch and hit. In the 2019 season, when he was limited to hitting only, his OPS (batting average), or the sum of his on-base percentage and slugging percentage, which is a major measure of a hitter’s ability, dropped by nearly 10%.

■Three managerial changes in five years

Injuries were not the only crisis he faced. There was a series of “managerial changes. Saucier, Ausmus, Maddon, and Nevin; four managers in five years is a lot.

Manager Mike Socia, who came to the negotiating table himself and enthusiastically recruited me to the Angels, retired in 2018 after completing his 10-year contract at the end of Ohtani’s first season in the majors. In any company, it must be unsettling to lose the boss who recruited you.

When a manager is replaced, the strategy, policies, and player usage change. During the Saucier era, the manager himself was always relaxed and sometimes brought an element of fun into the clubhouse, but Ausmus brought strict discipline. However, the team did not perform well, and he was dismissed after only one year.

■I never even heard rumors about his behavior outside the ballpark.

Then along came Joe Maddon, the great general who led the Tampa Bay Rays to their first World Series and their first World Series title in 108 years with the Chicago Cubs.

Lest we forget, the 2020 season was the worst year for Shohei Ohtani, Joe Maddon, and the entire world. He had knee surgery in the offseason of the previous year, which prevented him from getting enough lower-body training, the season itself was cut short due to the new coronavirus, spectators were not allowed to enter, and Ohtani himself was not a good pitcher, did not hit well at all, and was a starter. He was not allowed to enter the audience.

He himself has said, “I’ve had to fight a lot of skepticism in my life. I think the main reason he was able to overcome this adversity was because he never changed his attitude of “focusing only on baseball and devoting everything to baseball.

There are many temptations in MLB, where all the money and honors are available. There are plenty of players who have lost their way because of it. Just recently, a reunion of the 2002 World Series winning team was held at Angel Stadium. However, some former players did not show up for the first time in almost 20 years, and some have disappeared completely. Some current players have been suspended for off-ballpark issues while winning the Cy Young Award.

In this respect, Shohei Ohtani is completely clean as far as I know, and I have not even heard any rumors about his behavior outside the ballpark. That’s how focused he is on baseball, and he never goes out. In fact, I think that is his best-kept secret and quality.

■Training facilities that quantify even the level of fatigue

Driveline” played a major role in the success of the 2021 season. This is a training facility in Seattle where many Major Leaguers gather every off-season to receive instruction. One of the features of Driveline is that it uses a variety of state-of-the-art devices to quantify everything that happens.

Shohei Ohtani had proven himself in 2018 that he could pitch and hit in the majors. Only an elbow injury prevented him from continuing his success as a pitcher. So he was in the driveline, as long as he didn’t break down. I think the fact that several of his Angels teammates, such as Alex Cobb, had gone to the driveline also helped.

By going to the driveline, the level of fatigue was all quantified. This means that both the players themselves and their leaders now have a concrete idea of when they need to rest and when they do not need to rest.

■Correcting the trajectory of his arm by throwing “heavy pitches

He consistently claimed that he could play more games, but probably didn’t have the numbers to back up this claim in 2018. However, thanks to the driveline, everything is now quantified and visualized. It allowed me to compete in almost every match in 2021. It is important to have data at hand to back up one’s claims.

There are many undisclosed details of the driveline practice, and I don’t know the details, but it always includes throwing a “heavy ball”. In extreme cases, if you were to throw a bowling ball from above, you would always throw it through close to your torso. This is how they correct the trajectory of the arm when throwing the pitch. This is why Shohei Ohtani has recently been throwing several different heavy pitches against the wall as part of his routine before his first pitch.

Shohei Ohtani’s career in baseball has been a series of injuries and setbacks. It has not been all glory. I hope you will read my book and get a sense of Shohei Ohtani’s struggles as seen through the eyes of an American journalist like myself.