Shohei Ohtani

Shohei Ohtani (大谷 翔平), nicknamed "Shotime", is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher and designated hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB).

He has previously played in MLB for the Los Angeles Angels and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

Because of his elite contributions both as a hitter and as a pitcher, a rarity for two-way players, Ohtani's peak is widely considered among the greatest in baseball history, with some comparing it favorably to the early career of Babe Ruth.

He was the second Nippon Pro Baseball rookie drafted out of high school the previous year to be used as both a pitcher and position player, following Kikuo Tokunaga in 1951; Ohtani was the first to start in both roles.

He was the first NPB pitcher since Takao Kajimoto in 1963 to bat 3rd, 4th, or 5th and the first rookie hurler to do so since Junzo Sekine in 1950.

Ohtani was born to Kayoko and Toru Ohtani in Mizusawa (now part of Ōshū), Iwate, Japan, on July 5, 1994.

His mother was a national-level badminton player in high school and his father worked at a local automobile manufacturing plant and was an amateur baseball player who played in the Japanese Industrial League.

He is the youngest of three children.

He has one older sister, Yuka, and one older brother, Ryuta, who is also an amateur baseball player in the Japanese Industrial League.

In Japan, Ohtani was known as a "" (野球少年; "baseball boy")—a kid who lives, eats and breathes baseball.

Coached by his father, he displayed an aptitude for the game at an early age.

He began playing baseball in his second year of elementary school, and as a seventh-grader, Ohtani recorded all but one of 18 outs in a six-inning regional championship game.

As a teenager, Ohtani could have played baseball for any powerhouse high school team in big cities such as Osaka or Yokohama.

Instead, he opted to stay local, selecting Hanamaki Higashi High School in Iwate Prefecture, Northern Japan, the same high school as pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, whom he admired; Ohtani competed there as a swimmer and played baseball.

Ohtani's high school baseball coach, Hiroshi Sasaki, said that he was a fast swimmer who "could have made the Olympics."

Under Sasaki's guidance, Hanamaki Higashi's players lived on campus, returning home for only six days a year.

Sasaki would assign toilet cleaning chores to Ohtani, to teach the youth pitcher humility.

Considered early on as an elite two-way player, Ohtani was the first pick of the Fighters in the 2012 draft.

In 2012, Ohtani threw a 160 km/h fastball as an 18-year-old high school pitcher, which at the time, had set a Japanese high school baseball record until it was surpassed by Rōki Sasaki's 163 km/h fastball in 2018.

Ohtani threw the pitch in the Japanese national high school baseball championship tournament, commonly called Summer Koshien.

In the 2012 18U Baseball World Championship, Ohtani had an 0–1 win–loss record with 16 strikeouts, eight walks, five hits, five runs, and a 4.35 earned run average (ERA) in 10 1⁄3 innings pitched.

Ohtani expressed a desire to move directly to the major leagues after high school and received interest from numerous teams including the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.

On October 21, 2012, he announced that he would pursue a career in Major League Baseball rather than turn professional in Japan.

The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters decided to draft him in the 2012 NPB Draft nevertheless, despite knowing that there was a high likelihood he would not play for them.

After an exclusive negotiating window between him and the Fighters, Ohtani announced that he would sign with the Fighters and spend some years in Japan before a possible MLB move.

Hokkaido said it would allow Ohtani to serve as a pitcher and position player; the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had become Ohtani's top-choice MLB team, were not prepared to let him play both ways.

He was assigned the jersey number 11, previously worn by Yu Darvish.

He played in NPB for the Fighters from 2013 through 2017 as a pitcher and an outfielder, and won the 2016 Japan Series with them.

Ohtani made his debut at age 18 in the Fighters' season-opening game on March 29, 2013, playing as a right fielder.

He was selected for a Pacific League roster spot for the 2013 All-star game.

As a pitcher, he finished the season with a 3–0 record in 11 starts.

As a rookie Ohtani was used in both the outfield (leading the Fighters with 51 games in right) and as a pitcher.

The Fighters posted Ohtani to MLB after the 2017 season, and he signed with the Angels, soon winning the 2018 American League (AL) Rookie of the Year Award.

Following an injury-plagued 2019 and 2020, Ohtani had a 2021 season widely considered to be historic, as he became the first in the history of MLB with 10+ home runs and 20+ stolen bases as a hitter and 100+ strikeouts and 10+ pitching appearances as a pitcher in the same season, while also holding at least a share of the major league lead in home runs in 14 starts.

For his efforts, he was awarded the 2021 American League Most Valuable Player Award.

He followed this in 2022 by becoming the first player in the modern era to qualify for both the hitting and pitching leaderboards in one season, reaching the thresholds of 3.1 plate appearances and one inning pitched per game with 586 at-bats and 166 innings pitched.

Ohtani completed yet another historic campaign in 2023, becoming the first player in MLB history with 10 wins and 40 home runs in a season, the first Japanese-born player to win a major league home run title, leading the American League with 44 home runs, the first player in MLB history to win MVP by unanimous vote twice and the first Japanese player to have the most popular Major League Baseball jersey sales.

After the 2023 season, Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers, the largest contract in professional sports history.

Internationally, Ohtani represented Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, winning the MVP Award for the tournament following Japan's victory over the USA.

The final game was one of the most-watched baseball games in history, culminating with Ohtani striking out Angels teammate and USA captain Mike Trout on a full count, securing a 3–2 win and Japan's third title.