[♪ rock music playing, Queen "We Will Rock You"]
[commentator 1] Shohei Ohtani, he has done it, wow.
[commentator 2] Shohei, the unicorn, does it again.
[commentator 3] This guy's from another planet.
[commentator 4] With the paint on the four-seamer at 98.
[commentator 5] Dive. On turn! Right field, a bullet! And go!
[commentator 6] He's the modern-day Babe Ruth.
♪ Buddy, you're a boy, make a big noise ♪
♪ Playing in the street gonna be a big man someday ♪
♪ You got mud on your face, you big disgrace ♪
♪ Kicking your can all over the place, singin' ♪
♪ We will, we will rock you ♪
[commentator 7] Ohtani, a laser and it's gone.
[commentator 8] Ohtani got it. He got it.
[commentator 9] Oh, out call.
[commentator 9 exclaims]
[commentator 10] First ball swinging, and first pitch crushing.
Got him!
[commentator 11] Seven incredible innings on the mound
and he just smashes a baseball a mile.
[commentator 12] Shotime.
[crowd cheering]
[♪ music stops]
[Martínez] Shohei Ohtani is the only player
in modern MLB history
with over 10 pitching wins, 40 homers,
and 15 stolen bases in the same season.
As the sole All-Star to be selected as a designated hitter and pitcher,
his strikeout and home run count
surpassed records set by Babe Ruth decades ago.
This is the story of the most unique player
in baseball history.
[♪ serene music playing]
Born in 1994,
Shohei Ohtani grew up in a small town in Iwate, Japan.
No one expected a legend in the making to come from such a rural area.
[Martínez] This is where his journey began.
[birds chirping]
[Martínez] As a kid, Shohei watched Major League Baseball
and dreamed of playing there one day.
[Shohei in Japanese]
[commentator 1] Unemotional Ichiro Suzuki.
And a ground ball back at the middle,
and there it is, he's the new All-time Hit King
in Major League history number 258.
- My, oh, my. - [crowd cheering]
[commentator 2] Tonight, it was Hideki Matsui who delivered.
[commentator 3] Randy Johnson has thrown a perfect game.
[commentator 4] Pedro Martínez is on the mound.
[commentator 5] Barry Bonds has hit more home runs
than anyone who has ever played the game.
[commentator 6] That may be in the upper deck.
A mammoth home run by Ken Griffey Jr.
[Shohei in Japanese]
[commentator] Around the horn of the bases from third to first, Matsui steps up.
Getting to start on the left field tonight at 259 average with 9 home runs.
41 runs…
[Shohei on recording]
[laughs]
[chuckles]
[commentator in English]
Because, he said, "Well, you're right, I wasn't feeling well.
[Martínez] In 2009,
Shohei watched Matsui and I face off in the World Series.
[commentator] …to the left-handed hitting DH.
[Shohei in Japanese]
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Pedro's pitch to Matsui.
And a flyball in the right, down the line.
Gone. Two-nothing, New York.
[Shohei in Japanese]
[soft grunt]
[commentator 1] Five strikeouts already. Michael Busch, the batter.
Swing and a miss. Michael Busch gets blown away with 100.
[indistinct shouting]
[commentator 2] Lowest opening average in March and April since 1920s.
So over 100 years. Minimum 770 innings.
And Shohei Ohtani is at the top of the list.
Look at the names on there, like Pedro Martínez and Bob Feller.
- One, two. Eddie? - [Eddie] Yes, he wins. Yeah.
[commentator 2] Yes, he did.
[commentator 3] Shohei Ohtani is on the mound tonight
and could be the right guy on the mound, certainly for the halos tonight.
There's the fastball getting a check swing and a miss for strike three.
[commentator 4] Shohei tying Babe Ruth on the all-time strikeout list
as far as the pitcher and hitter.
Babe Ruth both at 501, two-way stars The Babe and Shohei.
[commentator 5] Think Shohei is going to beat it.
Peña swings and misses. Nasty sweeper from Shohei.
Second strikeout for Ohtani.
[commentator 6] Passes Babe Ruth now,
two-way stars on the all-time strikeout list.
[commentator 5] Really, nothing like it in the history of Major League Baseball.
[commentator] Starting pitcher. Announcers. Fans.
You got to love what you saw here tonight.
Goes for the high fastball.
Strikeout number 17 for Pedro Martínez.
[chuckles]
I'm really, really proud to see where he comes from
and how he actually had that dream from so far out.
[Martínez] I grew up just like Shohei. Just like that, open fields.
I was also very free to move around.
I'd like to be outside, exposed to nature and free spirit.
But I also had the dream of becoming a baseball player.
You know who really deserve a lot of credit?
I think it's his parents, for educating this kid.
I mean, make him so committed to what he wanted.
[Shohei in Japanese]
Mm.
[Shohei murmurs]
[Kuriyama in Japanese]
[♪ suspenseful music playing]
[commentator] The 3-2.
- Ohtani hits it hard and a diving stab. - [crowd cheering]
From his D's, the throw, not in time.
Ohtani, big, strong and he's too fast.
[Martínez] As a freshman in high school,
Shohei mapped out his goals on a "dream board".
His dream was to be drafted first by eight pro teams,
which he planned to achieve
by perfecting eight factors of his game,
each with eight smaller goals.
This included physicality, mentality,
luck, control,
and humanity amongst others.
It's quite impressive.
I'm more impressed about this,
about how he had it in his mind before then
than what he's doing.
Because it's hard to draw your dream and go and achieve it.
[Martínez] I-I wish, I wish I could have.
But I never thought about it.
I… I had so many uncertainties
when it came to baseball and it wasn't easy.
And I know it's not easy for him, but this is quite impressive
to draw your dream…
in a piece of paper and especially at such a young age.
It's... It's probably more impressive than the things he's doing in baseball.
Wow. This should be in the Hall of Fame already.
This should be in the Hall of Fame.
[awkward chuckle]
[chuckles]
[laughs]
Oh…
[chuckles]
[commentator] He struck him out.
CC Sabathia with a complete game shut out,
and this is his sixth complete game as a New York Yankees…
Obviously writing this down
and being able to, you know, to execute this plan is amazing.
I mean, I read everything he wrote down, arm care and, you know, flexibility
and stability and all those things that he has written down on that paper.
He's going to be in that MVP Cy Young race every single year
and will definitely lead him to the Hall of Fame.
[sucks teeth]
What led to him kinda draw in his dream.
And how is he able to put it all together,
did he know his body that well?
Did he know, uh, that he was going to be that kind of athlete?
I... I'm so intrigued to know how he prepared himself so well.
[chuckles]
[Martínez] At six, Shohei wrote that his favorite sport was baseball.
His dream job was to be a baseball player.
And as an adult, he wanted to be ordinary.
[players shouting indistinctly]
When I was reading, I… [stutters]
I said this is not, you know, normal.
And certainly he's not just anybody.
He's not normal.
Now, I'm intrigued to really, really get to know Shohei.
[Martínez] At 18, Shohei was scouted to be a pitcher in the US.
However, a pro team in Japan made an offer that caught his attention.
He was given the opportunity to be both a pitcher and a hitter,
something that hadn't been seen in over decades.
I think when you really look at that decision in 18,
and not a lot of people put a weight on it,
but I do and I know Shohei does.
[Balelo] That was a big decision.
And I really believe that there could have been two paths in a player's career.
I really do.
I think it's that sliding door and it's door A or it's door B.
And they allowed him to enter door A.
And start in the big leagues, and then we saw the rest from there.
Did very well.
But if he would have been in door B,
and he would have started possibly in the minor leagues,
we have no idea what could have come from this.
They might have labeled him just as a pitcher, just as a hitter.
We might have not been able to see
this special situation develop the way it did.
[♪ upbeat music playing]
[Shohei in Japanese]
[deep breath] Ah…
[Matsui in Japanese]
[commentator] And to the count.
Darvish sets the pitch in their strike three called…
[Balelo] You know, there's 30 teams over here
and all 30 teams scout what we call the Pacific Rim.
And, uh, it was pretty well-advertised
that Shohei was really looking to come over
and play in Major League Baseball.
And he really had a strong desire out of high school
before he became a Fighter, to come over.
Mr. Kuriyama had a very good rapport with Shohei and the family,
and so they came to an understanding
that whenever Shohei felt like it was time to come over
and get an opportunity to play in the United States,
that they would grant him and honor that, you know, his wishes to come over.
And his story was a great story.
Nobody wants to grow up just being a pitcher.
If you look at, you know, youth sports and high school baseball,
the best player is usually the shortstop, the pitcher, the best hitter
and all these different things in one.
And like I said, I mean, you know,
he's making it so kids don't have to choose
and, you know, making it so kids can be, you know, both
and pursue that dream as, you know, being a dual, a hitter and a pitcher,
because that's how you start playing the game.
And that is our dream as kids is to, you know, hit home runs
and to strike guys out.
And this guy is both in one.
So, you know, he's living out, I think, every baseball player's dream.
[Matsui hesitates]
Maybe at a tournament it could happen.
[Shohei in Japanese]
[sighs]
[Shohei on recording]
[Kuriyama on recording]
[camera shutters clicking]
[Shohei in Japanese]
[Shohei on recording]
[Darvish in Japanese]
[CC Sabathia] Like I said, I mean, him being able to play
those, those first couple of years in Japan as a hitter and a pitcher
to set him up perfectly to be able to come over here
and have the confidence and have the routine
to know what he's doing,
to be able to do both of those things at a high level.
So I think, you know, he did the perfect thing
of not coming over here when he was 18, right out of high school,
and being able to develop and learn how to have the right routine
to come over here and make this impression on everybody.
[crowd chanting]
[crowd roaring]
[commentator in Japanese] 102.5 mph, a new record!
[crowd cheering]
[♪ upbeat music playing]
[crowd cheering]
[Martínez] At the Nippon-Ham Fighters, Shohei broke boundaries and records
in hopes of one day making it to the majors.
[bird chirping]
He must have been really, uh, confident.
Normally, you don't…
you don't know what's going to happen.
You're not confident.
You can dream about it and chase your dream.
But I guess Shohei was unique
every time he thought about what he wanted to do
because sometimes we want it.
Yes, we want it,
but not all the time we get it.
Hmm…
[chuckles]
I don't know what it feels like to be him.
He's the first guy to do what he's doing.
I was trying to convince the Cubs that we could do it
in a National League setting,
you know, where… that he can both pitch and play the outfield,
which you would have had to have done to do that.
[Joe] A lot of people were just skeptical of all that stuff.
I don't know. I mean, here's a guy that came here
for a specific reason and everybody had spoken with,
talks about him being one of the best players they've ever seen.
So my, as a manager of the Cubs at that time,
my evaluation process was how do we get them,
get them to do both things in the National League.
He signed up for a reason. This is what he does.
And he could pitch and also hit.
Everybody was shying away from that.
I didn't want… I didn't get it. Quite frankly, I didn't get it.
Everybody was willing to at least explore the idea of allowing him to do both.
Because it's not like he hasn't done it before.
He was successful in Japan doing both.
He had the ability to and we were going to let him try to be a two-way player.
And I think that was important to Shohei.
How did Shohei…
How did he make the decision?
[Balelo] You know why did he choose the Angels?
I don't know. You're going to have to ask Shohei that.
[murmurs]
You'll have to talk to Shohei. He has that answer.
In our meetings with Shohei, with Nez, um,
we were very upfront, very honest, and what we felt about Shohei,
we absolutely felt that he was a two-way player,
or I'm not sure if other teams had that in mind or not.
I really couldn't answer that.
You know, Shohei has been asked that question,
and his answer is, "I just felt it.
You know, I just felt like it was the right place for me."
And he felt comfortable.
Um… good people.
Good location. You know, maybe the right division.
You know, there's all kinds of things.
But at the end of the day, he was open to playing on the East Coast.
He was open to playing in the middle of the country.
He was open to playing on the West Coast.
And, um, I can honestly say that he really was,
because when you think about the teams that he ended up narrowing it down to…
half were NL teams and half were AL teams.
Actually, it was more on NL than there was on the AL side, I believe.
So, um…
And that was before the DH rule.
So an NL team that was going to get Shohei would be looking at him as a pinch hitter
and allowing him to hit while he pitched.
He was gonna be limited at that point,
unless he picked up a glove, went to the outfield,
or maybe went to first base.
So that was something an NL team was going to have to juggle a little bit,
knowing that the DH rule was possibly coming.
And eventually it did.
[♪ light upbeat music playing]
[Martínez] After five years in Japan,
Shohei finally decided to come to the US.
He had chosen the Los Angeles Angels.
[♪ upbeat music intensifies]
Thank you very much. And, uh, Shohei, welcome.
Thank you.
[crowd cheering, clapping]
[crowd cheering]
[in English] Hi. My name is Shohei Ohtani.
[crowd cheering]
He's 23 years old.
So there's a lot of growth there,
both on the physical side, on the mental side,
and on his baseball side…
He struggled his first spring training in 2018, really struggled.
[Balelo] Uh, what he does is very difficult and challenging.
But it was Shohei was the one saying,
"I'm going to go ahead and play this thing out." And he did.
[♪ hopeful music playing]
It's hard to play Major League Baseball, right?
But it's even harder when you come to a foreign land
and don't know the language
and you're trying to navigate all of that stuff.
[CC Sabathia] You have to give these guys credit.
The guys from the DR,
the guys from the Asian countries that come over here
and can perform at a high level in a foreign place
without knowing the language
and really understanding, you know, things, the first couple of years.
Like even my transition from coming from Vallejo, California,
to, you know, on these big stages,
whether it was Cleveland, Milwaukee or New York.
It was a hard transition. You know what I'm saying?
It's a hard thing to get used to.
And for us as teammates, you have to have sympathy
and understand what these guys are going through
and try to help out as much as you can to help our team win.
When you come from a totally different culture, totally different league,
and you have to come over,
it's a daunting task.
There's always a question of, you know, "Can I do this?",
no matter how talented you are.
He's a non-roster guy at this point.
Remember, he signed a minor league contract
because he came out early from Japan,
so they could have easily sent him to Triple-A to go find himself.
A lot of people doubted him.
There were a lot of media. There were a lot of people.
A lot of industry people that said, "Wait a second, he's not getting it done."
On their first take and their first glimpse of him in spring training in 2018
when he had that first opportunity to start in Oakland.
[clicks tongue] We saw Shohei Ohtani.
[♪ electronic music playing]
[crowd cheering, clapping]
[commentator 1] Now the one, two. Swing and a miss.
Down goes Semien, one down.
[commentator 2] But that's how good. And I'm sure Xavi is very impressed now.
So Ohtani goes after the first pitch he sees as a major leaguer,
and he's got himself a base hit.
So Shohei Ohtani does not…
We wouldn't have maybe had that opportunity
if he was with a different organization…
that said, "You know what, he needs a little more seasoning."
[Balelo] You know, the rest is history.
[♪ suspenseful music playing]
[crowd cheering]
[CC Sabathia] If he comes to the New York Yankees
and we're in Tampa,
and he struggles as a hitter that first year in spring training,
they immediately just put him on the mound and like, "Hey, you're just a pitcher.
You know, the bat doesn't play here,
and we're just going to keep you on the mound."
Him going to Anaheim and, you know, not being a huge, huge media presence
and him being able to like, you know, figure out his swing over here
and kind of get rid of the leg kick
and just, you know, go from, you know, just with the heel,
like kind of like the little heel tap,
I think that helped out big time.
And, you know, his developing and being able to turn into what he's turned into,
which is what I think is,
you know, probably one of the best baseball players ever.
I think those decisions have set him on that course.
[birds chirping]
I just think we saw the talent.
Shohei didn't really need any major overhauls.
And I think the biggest thing was we didn't want to put too much on him
until he felt comfortable.
Shohei evolved the way you would expect a young player to evolve.
He just didn't go from here to here.
He went from here to here and will continue to grow.
And it's easy for people to maybe look at this and possibly,
um…
criticized the decision because he hasn't been in the postseason in five years.
But, you know, things happen for reasons.
And I believe that…
his choice was the right choice at the time,
and it could be the right choice for the rest of his career.
And if you're not in the right clubhouse or in the right organization,
it could be, you know, um, not a great experience.
I struggled to be who I was in baseball.
And, uh…
I can only tell you that my dream was unexpected.
At the time I came up, there were a lot of doubts.
And I couldn't help but to second-guess myself,
my height, my size, my abilities.
Based on what others said,
I became a little bit shy, uh,
I became less confident.
I… I was humbled by the game,
I was humbled by other people,
but I… I never let go of my dream.
That was the biggest thing I ever did,
was to never quit.
And I was close and I thought about it,
but I'm glad I didn't.
[sucks teeth] Hm…
[clears throat]
Coming from where I came from, I grew up where I played baseball.
It was nothing but Black kids.
I mean, we played, we were really good too.
We played at a high level,
but there was only people that looked like me,
and I get to the minor leagues
and there's nobody on my team that looked like me.
And as I even go up even higher,
then there's nobody even around that looks like me, you know?
So, yeah, I mean, it's tough and I speak the language,
so I can only imagine coming here from the DR
or coming here from Japan or Korea and trying to fit in and play baseball.
Like it's… it's-it's pretty rough. It's pretty hard.
So the fact that we have the translators now,
we have the different things in place that can help, you know, um,
guys throughout the minor leagues and even in the big leagues,
I think it's a big change in baseball,
and from what I've seen in the 25 years that I've been in the game.
[sighs]
[commentator 1] Heads out toward the right-center field.
Going back on it is Zimmer.
-At the wall, goal! - [crowd cheering]
Big fly, Ohtani-san!
[commentator 2] Shohei Ohtani! His first major league home run!
[crowd cheering]
[♪ uplifting music playing]
[commentator 1] We felt something magical tonight.
He showed it on Sunday. [chuckles]
Uh…
[Shohei sucks teeth]
[Shohei in Japanese]
But I think when it's your dream
and it's something that you've been striving for
and it's your goal, um, in your mind you're ready.
You know what I mean?
So you just, you're gonna take on any challenge that comes with, you know,
your dream of being the best baseball player,
you know, that you can be.
[♪ light music playing]
[Martínez] Even then,
Shohei's path in the majors was filled with twists and turns.
[commentator 1] Aberdeen shortstop position to win.
- Omar Vizquel got... - [screams]
[commentator 2] Got him in the elbow.
[commentator 1] He is a right-handed thrower
and is a left-handed batter.
You expose that throwing arm to a pitch inside.
[commentator 3] That's it for Ohtani, 66 pitches tonight.
I didn't get to experience his great pitching
because he hurt his arm his first year.
And it happened pretty quickly in a game where all of a sudden his velocity dropped
and didn't show a lot of pain, but the ball wasn't coming out of his hand
and it didn't take long for the diagnosis to come
that he needed Tommy John surgery.
But he still, he still wanted to hit,
and, um, he hit up until almost the end of the season.
Shohei was the one saying, "I'm not getting this surgery yet.
I'm gonna go ahead and play this thing out." And he did.
And he had a big month,
and it could have made the difference, uh, to be rookie of the year.
[in English] To all the Angles fans, thank you.
Hopefully I will not need this cheat sheet the next time I'm up here.
Thank you.
- [audience clapping] - [♪ uplifting music playing]
[Balelo] And that tells you a lot about his character
and his drive and his passion wanting to play
and see the year through.
And it was the right decision.
There's gonna be moments where his body is not going to respond like he wants.
You can have perfect mindset.
You can have perfect mechanics,
but there are days where your body just says no, you cannot execute,
fastball in, fastball away, slider or changeup.
[commentator] Look at this.
This is a guy that used to throw 98 to 100 miles an hour.
And these are the baby steps that you don't see
and we don't see as fans.
We're saying, "Well, the guy had Tommy John
and he'll be back by July and August."
I mean, it's amazing to watch this guy from like, what, 15 or 20 feet
-tossing that baseball. - [machine clunks]
[Shohei in Japanese]
[sucks teeth]
I mean, 2020, let's just call it was a very rough year in general.
And when you take a player out of his routine in his element,
it's tough to be successful.
So 20 was a rough year, and that was Joe's first taste of Shohei.
In 2020, because there was a lot of issues,
he had coming off injuries and he wasn't quite the same.
But 2021, um, it was, it became more…
[clicks tongue] …galvanized through our conversations,
how we're gonna do this.
- And it worked out pretty well. - [machine thuds]
[chuckles nervously]
Quite frankly, Sho, I never doubted that you could.
[Joe] I didn't, um…
Uh, when he came back, 2021 spring training,
was a totally different player.
I mean, I'd seen him in 2020. Things weren't quite right.
His hitting was off. His throwing off was off.
His throwing motion was off.
But he came here for a reason. You came here for a reason.
So for me, it was my responsibility to make this work.
There was never any doubt, um,
about wanting to do it from my perspective,
I thought I had to convince other people to give it an opportunity or try.
So Sho, for me, absolutely,
everything I said to you was from my heart, always will be,
and I thought you can do it and of course you have.
[Shohei on recording]
Uh…
The fact that he thought we were there to tell him or ask him to not do that,
um, I guess I am surprised because that's the reason,
that's the point about asking questions or having conversations.
Sometimes you have the absolute wrong idea or impression
of what somebody's thinking.
But it tells you the type of person Shohei is, extremely humbled.
Like what are they coming in to tell me when they're thinking,
okay, we need you to be this guy and do both
and go out and run with it.
But he's thinking, are they gonna shut it down?
Are they gonna just shut me down on doing both?
So, I love the humbled approach by Shohei, but clearly that was never mentioned.
It was never even a thought,
and, um, oh, maybe it was one of their thoughts,
but it was never expressed to me.
Um, but yeah, they did just take off all the restrictions
and the restrictions were…
you know, certain rest days, pitch counts, you know,
there were a lot of things that days off after before, you know,
it was just, it was just too much.
[Balelo] It was simply put,
- Shohei is gonna do what he's gonna do. - [crowd cheering]
We ask one thing, communicate with Joe. Joe communicate with Shohei.
If he's tired, he'll tell you he's tired. He needs a day.
If not, let him go. Let him out there. That's what they did.
[Shohei in Japanese]
[inhales sharply, grunts]
[Shohei in Japanese]
[Joe] He observes everything.
He weighs everything that comes in his direction.
So as a manager, you better understand from the beginning, um,
he's not gonna come.
He's never gonna be disrespectful, ever.
Uh, but everything you say to him, he's gonna take it in and evaluate it.
Um…
And again, always with due respect to whomever, it's whoever his manager is,
and I'm here to tell you, I don't even know if he'd admit it.
There's times he absolutely disagreed with whether it was me or somebody else.
But he'll keep it to himself. He listens to everything.
He sees everything just like he does in the game of baseball.
He takes it all in.
He never speaks too quickly. He never speaks fast.
It's very, I'm not, the word, it's not guarded, it's evaluated.
Everything he does is evaluated.
[Balelo] That's the way he operates. He looks at everything.
If there's nine negative things and then there's that one positive,
he's looking at that positive and running with it
and trying to make the most of that to offset the other nine negative.
Here's the real question.
If Shohei did not like any of his managers,
the question is would he say anything about it?
I don't think so.
[commentator] …go nuts if he goes deep.
We felt something magical tonight.
He showed it on Sunday.
[crowd cheering]
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
[commentator laughs]
[Balelo] Because the thing that Shohei does best…
is enjoys the game like he loves the game,
and he plays it with tremendous passion,
and I never want to take that away from him.
I don't want anything to get in the middle of that.
Hmm…
[Shohei in Japanese]
Hmm.
Yeah, I wasn't like Shohei. [chuckles]
And I appreciate him, um, you know, sacrificing his life
to give us a great show.
You know what I mean? I appreciate that.
[CC Sabathia] But if you looked at me during my career,
you can see I was always thinking about other stuff.
[chuckles] Baseball was just something that I did,
and I was really good at and I loved to do,
but it wasn't kind of who I was, you know?
I mean, me and my wife got married really young.
I had kids really early
and that… those distractions helped me be a great baseball player.
Like me having a life outside of baseball really helped me
because if I would have just locked in on baseball,
this is one thing like I'm too obsessive
and I would have, I wouldn't have last very long.
I would have burnt out.
So having my wife, having kids, having other things
that I'm super interested in outside of baseball,
that helped me be a great player.
[Darvish in Japanese]
[♪ pensive music playing]
[Martínez] Despite all the hardships, Shohei persevered.
[machine clunks]
[commentator 1] Got it, got it, got it!
[commentator 2] Oh, wow, where did that one go?
[crowd screaming]
[commentator 1] Oh, he's gonna get to jog around the bases!
[♪ upbeat music playing, Tainy x Bad Bunny "Mojabi Ghost"]
That's what is, gone!
He did it again!
- [commentator 2] They knew it off the bat. - [commentator 1] Wow!
He's a beast! [commentator 1 laughs]
He gets it done, wow!
- [commentator 2] That's gorgeous. - [commentator 1] Oh, yeah.
[commentator 1] Did he get it? Did he get it? He did, wow!
[commentator 2 laughs] Oh, my!
He did it!
[commentator 3] Throw him the crown. AL Player of the month.
[commentator 4] It is Shotime!
[announcer] The 2021 American League's Most Valuable Player, number 17,
Shohei Ohtani.
[Martínez] In 2021,
he unanimously won the American League MVP award,
the following year, he was runner up.
He became one of the best players in all of Major League Baseball.
[Joe] Shohei is a pitcher,
makes hitters look really bad based on command and movement,
and he knows what he's doing.
He's always creating out there in that blink moment
to make an adjustment, react without even thinking
and just do the right things.
His baseball acumen is as high as I've been around.
Shohei Ohtani and Yu Darvish
are so similar in so many things that they do,
both as a person and a human being and then as a pitcher and as an artist.
[inhales sharply]
Shohei is fearless,
but the psychology part of the other players is really important,
and you have to really pay attention to it.
And that, that is the only part…
that he's gonna have to learn as he goes.
Pitching movement on the pitches is a God-given talent for him.
It's… It's also something you can work on.
But understanding what the other athlete is trying to do against you
is critical.
And I think that's the only part that Shohei is going to have to leave
to understand in the game.
[♪ lively music playing]
[Martínez] In 2023, Shohei wrote…
a new chapter in his story.
Team Japan finished in third place in the last two tournaments.
Guys, they always come in prepared.
They won the inaugural and second WBC.
So let's take a look at their roster.
This rotation highlighted by Shohei.
[newsreader] Actually on Samurai Japan and…
and that's a really important part of Japanese baseball culture
is the national team.
It's the national team up here and your club team is below that.
And so that's why there is continual play with the national team.
It'd be as if we had Team USA playing in tournaments every single year.
It's that important in the Japanese baseball consciousness.
As a result, I think you're gonna see him be very comfortable this spring.
[Darvish chuckles]
[chuckles]
[commentator 1] Shohei Ohtani second start here in the World Baseball Classic.
[commentator 2] Some filth off the table for strike three.
[commentator 3] He strikes out swing here against Ohtani and 102.
[commentator 4] One win away from playing for
a World Baseball Classic championship.
Here we go. Ohtani rips a piece into the right side of the field.
He ended the gap.
[crowd cheering]
Cut off by Thomas in center field.
Ohtani steps in second in the lead on double.
[commentator 5] The fans behind the dugout chanting "MVP. MVP."
[commentator 6] Mike Trout, oh, my goodness.
Trout's gonna stop at second. Oh, my goodness. What a clinic.
The two biggest stars in the world are gonna lead their teams on the field.
Mike Trout and Team USA.
Shohei Ohtani and Team Japan.
[birds chirping]
[♪ suspenseful music playing]
[♪ suspenseful music intensifies]
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] They've been teammates for five years.
The best against the best.
The matchup we've all been wanting to see.
[Shohei in Japanese]
[commentator] First time they'd ever faced each other.
Baseball wins tonight.
Here's the pitch and the dirt and 102.
[Shohei in Japanese]
[commentator] The final strike in the ninth inning.
Looking for heroics.
Three and two from Ohtani.
He throws, Trout strikes out. Swinging.
[crowd cheering]
Ohtani and Japan.
Celebrate a World Baseball Classic championship.
What an ending…
to an all-time tournament.
What a game.
[♪ emotional music playing]
[thunderous crack]
[whooshes]
[crowd cheering]
[Martínez] At the World Baseball Classic,
Shohei achieved his dream
of becoming one of the greatest baseball players in the world.
[♪ ambient music playing]
[clunks]
[crowd cheering]
Now that Shohei has won the WBC,
is he still writing down his dreams?
[Martínez] At 18, Shohei wrote,
"Life doesn't make dreams.
Dreams make life.
I will dedicate my life to baseball."
Best way I can describe it. I mean, he's passionate about baseball.
He's always gonna be great at the game.
He's gonna do it for, what, maybe 10 more years, something like that.
But what happens after that?
When you lead a long life, you got to fill in the blanks, man.
[Joe] And you, you want to be a complete person.
That is interesting beyond just the game, I think.
[Matsui in Japanese]
[chuckles]
His thing is baseball.
This is his thing that that is fulfilling everybody else's life.
Right? Like, look, we're sitting here doing a whole documentary about him
and he's, you know, three or four years into his career.
I think whatever Shohei, you know, fills his life with,
whether it's baseball or things off the field,
I think he'll be fine.
And I mean, burning out after a Hall of Fame career,
you know what I mean, like, all right…
[laughs] …I'll take that any day.
[CC Sabathia laughs]
[Matsui in Japanese]
[Darvish in Japanese]
[chuckles]
Hmm.
[inhales sharply] Uh…
[crowd cheering]
[♪ electronic music playing]
[crowd cheering]
Well, I think all of us that played this game
are extremely devoted to it,
and we understood, uh, and understand how difficult it was.
We lived baseball.
[inhales deeply] How old is he? 28?
Nah, he's okay. [chuckles]
[Kuriyama in Japanese]
The only thing I can see from him is, "What's next?"
For the next generation of players.
Uh, is he gonna pass
all these things that he did to the next generation?
Because it's challenging to do what he's doing.
[♪ upbeat music playing]
[clunks]
[whooshes]
[clunks]
This is for Shohei, my buddy, with all the respect
and best wishes to you, Shohei.
[Shohei mutters]
[chuckles softly]
[chuckles]
[Shohei in Japanese]
It'll be interesting what the future brings,
um, but right now,
we're just enjoying this ride, and so is he.
And, um, I'm excited about where he's at.
I think he's just scratching the surface.
I'm excited about his future and where it's going.
Um…
It's going to be a really fun ride.
And it has been so far.
What I would like Shohei to understand is the journey to a championship
sometimes gets rocky, and that's what I would tell him.
It's very rarely a clean slide up and you get your championship.
You have to be patient
and you have to understand that your time will come.
And that road to the top is, is not easy or else everybody would be up there.
Good luck the rest of the way.
Keep going and hopefully, we'll see you in Cooperstown here soon.
[Kuriyama in Japanese]
[♪ uplifting music playing]
[♪ upbeat music playing, Ghost Machines "Can't Get Enough"]
♪ All out revving up like a V 12 ♪
♪ Braveheart screaming bye I'm a raise hell ♪
♪ Circuitry in my veins got the Intel ♪
♪ No shoes rocking on my feet ♪
♪ All eyes magnetized coming down that street ♪
♪ Feels good, so good ♪
♪ So good to be me ♪
♪ I got what you want ♪
♪ I got it so good ♪
♪ I got what you want ♪
♪ And you just can't, you just can't get enough ♪
♪ No, you just can't get enough ♪
[crowd chanting, applauding]
[crowd chanting] MVP! MVP!
MVP! MVP! MVP!
[crowd chanting loudly] MVP! MVP! MVP!
MVP! MVP!
[chanting continues] MVP! MVP! MVP!
[chanting fades]
[♪ upbeat music playing, "Lost in Paradise"]
Translated by Eika