In a League of His Own

US American Major League Baseball (MLB) hasn’t seen another player like Shohei Ohtani of Japan in nearly a hundred years, whose extraordinary skills have made him an absolute superstar. Christophorus met him in Los Angeles, his adopted home.

This story about Shohei Ohtani says a lot about him and his passions. With so much hype surrounding Ohtani since his arrival in 2018, many were hoping to sign the Japanese-born athlete as the next star player on their team following the announcement of his departure from the Los Angeles Angels in late 2023. The number 17 on the back of his in-demand jerseys has been a key component of his identity since his youth and is a symbol of his extraordinary celebrity.

With this in mind, Ashley Kelly, the wife of Ohtani’s future teammate Joe on the Los Angeles Dodgers, went straight to work publishing videos in which she showcases jerseys and merchandise of all sizes sporting the number 17 under the hashtag #Ohtake17. The message: her husband, the current owner of the popular jersey number, would surrender it to Ohtani if he’d only join the Dodgers.

The campaign was a success. Ohtani signed the contract, took over number 17, and thanked Ashley Kelly with an extraordinary gesture: he gave her a Porsche Taycan. On December 24, 2023, Ashley Kelly posted a video of herself receiving the unexpected Christmas present, with unbridled joy written all over her face.

One player, two positions

“Whenever I think about cars, Porsche always come to mind,” says the now 30-year-old with a friendly smile a few months later. We got together with him on a baseball field in Los Angeles near Dodger Stadium, where he had the opportunity to see the new Taycan Turbo S for the first time ever. “The car is really comfortable to drive, really quiet, and demonstrates its performance on every road,” says Ohtani after his initial assessment. “Porsche sports cars are so much more than just a means of transportation. They offer experiences and are so much fun to drive. I think that’s a good fit for me.”

Here in Los Angeles, his home for the past six years, he’s developed into a top athlete, broken some records, and now enjoys cult status. Ohtani is the only two-way player, meaning he plays two positions in the same game, which is the secret to his success. One of his positions is hitter, which means he tries to hit the ball as far as possible with the baseball bat to earn points for his team. But he’s also a pitcher, whose goal is to prevent the opposing team’s batters from doing the same – with fastballs and curveballs. Ohtani can pitch at speeds exceeding 90 mph and hit balls over a distance of more than 500 feet. One man, two key positions – that would be like the best player on a soccer team playing forward the first half and goalkeeper the second – and excelling at both.

From the countryside to Hollywood

Ohtani grew up in the city of Ōshū in northern Japan’s Iwate Prefecture and wanted to be a professional baseball player from an early age. “I saw the players on TV and dreamed of being just like them,” recalls the superstar. “Then I’d eagerly wait for the weekend to come, so I could play myself.” While the world’s best baseball stars play in the United States, Japan is home to the second-best league. Local star players tend to get started here, before moving on to MLB.

Ohtani comes from an athletic family. His mother played badminton, and his father was a semiprofessional baseball player who ended up passing his passion on to his son. It was important to Ohtani senior, who worked at a factory, that his son remain humble and focus on working hard rather than seeking the spotlight. Nevertheless, the young Ohtani had some lofty goals. “I was motivated by my dream,” he explains. “Everything else came second.” He was interested in launching his professional career in the US when he was 18, with multiple Major League teams eager to sign him in 2012. But when the Hokkaidō Nippon Ham Fighters promised him something that would be just about impossible in the US, Ohtani changed his mind. If he signed, the deal would allow him to reach his full potential – as a two-way player – which was unheard of in the Japanese League, and not just for rookies.

The experiment was a complete success. Ohtani was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) and won the championship with the Fighters in 2016, the team’s third national title, after 1962 and 2006. Then – after five seasons – he decided to make the switch to MLB.

Historical record

The bidding process began again when Ohtani announced his plans to switch teams in late 2023. Ohtani’s value for a franchise – as the teams in the US are called – goes far beyond his performance out on the field, where he already does the work of two players. Whenever he played for the Angels, the stadium would run lots of advertising for Japanese companies interested in reaching millions of fans who are watching the game on TV in Ohtani’s home country. Thousands of people with number 17 on their jerseys would flock to the arena for every game. Some of them knew next to nothing about baseball, but loved Ohtani all the same. According to industry estimates, the sponsorship contracts and ticket sales brought in additional revenue of around 20 million US dollars for the Angels annually.

The Los Angeles Dodgers saw in Ohtani a promise for the future of whichever team he joins and therefore offered him a ten-year contract worth 700 million US dollars, the largest contract in sports history. As a result of this extraordinary offer and Ashley Kelly’s publicity efforts, Ohtani has been hitting, pitching, and winning for the Dodgers since April 2024.

“I want to win championships,” says Shohei Ohtani. “And when people look back at the titles that my teams won, they should know that I played a big part in that.” The Japanese-born baseball player is well on his way to making these dreams come true. He’s even earned himself an auspicious nickname among fans and media, who refer to him as the Japanese Babe Ruth.