Shohei Ohtani's feats at the plate and on the mound are unique. Photo / Getty
Shohei Ohtani's feats at the plate and on the mound are unique. Photo / Getty
OPINION:
Kris Shannon outlines five reasons why a potential GOAT is going overlooked in NZ.
1. Bleating about taxonomy
The term GOAT has become overused to the point of losing all meaning. One player has a good game, they’re the GOAT. A different player has a better game, now they’rethe GOAT. An animal wanders onfield and starts eating grass, suddenly there’s a goat.
But we are fortunate to watch a few worthy of being labelled the greatest of all time. Some have affirmed their goatiness with recent crowning achievements – like Lionel Messi and Novak Djokovic. Another will be a little less familiar to Kiwi fans.
Shohei Ohtani, in just a few Major League Baseball seasons, is mounting a stronger goat argument than most will manage in a career.
The Japanese phenom, who turns 29 on Wednesday, is one of the best hitters in baseball and one of the best starting pitchers in baseball.
With a 493-foot (150m) home run on Saturday – the longest of the year – Ohtani took his tally for June to 15 homers, levelling Babe Ruth for the American League record.
He’s leading the majors in home runs this season – and leading in batting average allowed on the mound. So what, asks a country of cricket fans, is the big deal?
Imagine a cricketer ranked one of the world’s top batters, known for smacking colossal sixes, who with the new ball sat near top of the bowling charts. Now forget that imaginary player because Ohtani is way more impressive.
All-rounders aren’t a thing in baseball, not at the major-league level in the last century. Pitching and hitting are too specialised, domains of experts who have devoted lives to mastering such disparate skills.
That lifetime study is reflected in the results. Baseball is a game of failure – hall-of-fame hitters dream of making an out only two of every three times. Blasting a baseball over the fence is about as amazing as Zoë Bell cutting one in half with a samurai sword.
Consider how readily scoring is generated in T20 cricket, a game of equivalent length. And consider that in an average MLB game, a team will face about 150 pitches while recording about eight base hits and collecting four runs.
Pitching now is the most challenging it’s ever been. Without delving into the physics-defying movement, throwing 100mph (161kph) is common; a couple pitchers this season have reached 104.
Yet on any given day, Ohtani will crack 100 on the radar gun before cracking one into the stands.
3. His feats are unique
It’s not just that Ohtani is pitching and hitting at an elite level – no one else can manage at even a mediocre level. It’s common in high school, and does happen in college, but the big leagues are a different ball game.
After Ohtani left Japan and signed with the Los Angeles Angels in 2018, his initial achievements would regularly come affixed with a line like ‘the first player since Babe Ruth’.
But Ruth gave away pitching in 1919, before he was traded to the Yankees and socked the dingers for which he became famous. A hundred years ago, when the league was filled by exclusively by white Americans, doing two jobs was deemed too difficult.
With baseball having, eventually, been transformed into a global game, those jobs are more complex than ever. Sucking but still being employed at both would be notable enough.
Ohtani won the World Baseball Classic for Japan. Photo / Getty
4. Quality over quantity
Through injury, pandemic and the good fortune to avoid being born in the United States, Ohtani is playing only his third full year as a two-way player in MLB.
It may seem absurd to consider his case as the greatest to have stepped on a diamond, yet his performance in those three years is the real absurdity.
In 2021, Ohtani was named unanimous MVP. Sporting News called it the greatest season any athlete had produced. In 2022, he was statistically better, and he’s now on track to sail past those campaigns.
Last week, facing the White Sox, Ohtani became the first player since 1890 to reach base four times, hit two home runs and strike out 10 batters in one game.
Since the start of last season, he’s recorded 10 strikeouts in 16 games, five more than any other pitcher. In that same span, every other pitcher has combined for zero home runs; Ohtani has hit 64.
5. He’s gonna get paid
A year that began with Ohtani winning the World Baseball Classic for Japan – striking out Angels teammate Mike Trout, the American previously regarded as baseball’s best – will culminate in possibly the richest contract in sport history.
As a free agent for the first time in the States, playing a sport without a salary cap, he’s slugging his way near a blank cheque.
The total value of Ohtani’s next deal will be the highest in American sport, easily clearing the US$450m received by reigning Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes. It could well top the sole duo ahead of Mahomes: Messi ($674m at Barcelona) and Cristiano Ronaldo ($535m at Al-Nassr).
Ohtani might be signed by some fortunate franchise for $700m, enough to be an instant billionaire in this country – and still cheap for two All Stars in one body.
Kris Shannon has been a sports journalist since 2011 and covers a variety of codes for the Herald. Reporting on Grant Elliott’s six at Eden Park in 2015 was a career highlight.
