‘SUPER SPECIAL’
Angels’ two-way star Shohei Ohtani not getting enough credit.
He is everything that Major League Baseball needs in 2021.
He is on the verge of dominating the All-Star Game with awesome athleticism before the first pitch is even thrown.
And, still, Shohei Ohtani should be much bigger than this.
ESPN’s top internet stories Friday morning:
A fan taking a few swings with a golf club swiped from
Rory McIlroy’s bag.
An NBA assistant coach hiring.
A high school basketball player signing.
A spelling bee champion. That last one is super cool. But it’s not sports.
It should be all Ohtani, all the time across our national landscape right now.
The same for Jacob deGrom and his surreal 1.08 ERA that is supported by his absurd .364 batting average, 22-year-old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. leading MLB with a .341 average and 1.118 OPS in just his third season, and Fernando Tatis Jr. somehow exceeding expectations (28 homers, 1.065 OPS) during an era when overall batting averages have flirted with historic lows.
Maybe that’s the real problem with sports media nowadays. We far too often cover the wrong things and go out of our way to blow up the bad stories.
Drama, negativity and sideshows are thrown into a blender to hopefully create clicks and catch eyeballs.
When something incredibly positive, historic, straightforward and unifying keeps appearing in front of our faces, we’re already numb to the greatness.
Or maybe the national pull of MLB simply isn’t what it used to be and this isn’t that big of a deal: No. 1 in the sport in home runs (32) and slugging percentage (.700), third in RBIs (69) and OPS (1.064), and 4-1 with a 3.49 ERA and 87 strikeouts in 67 innings as a starting pitcher.
Sticky stuff, sadly, has been a bigger story than Ohtani. So it goes.
There is indisputably amazing. Then there is what Ohtani has been doing after Tommy John surgery and while lifting a team playing without Mike Trout above .500.
“(Ohtani is) an unbelievable player,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said this week. “Super talented. He’s performing at the highest level, night in and night out, whether it’s on the mound or at the plate.”
Bregman then mentioned that it seemed like the 27-year-old Los Angeles Angels designated hitter/ outfielder/starting righthander was “hitting a home run every night.”
Truer words have never been spoken.
While Bregman was going through pregame warmups in an effort to return to on-field action, Ohtani blasted a 433-foot shot to right field against Boston.
“He’s special,” Bregman said. “He’s super special.”
Babe Ruth, who last played in 1935 and died in 1948, has had his name back in the daily news again, thanks to Ohtani.
I’ve recently devoted too much free time thinking about the athletic wonders of Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders (and Brian Jordan), thanks to Ohtani.
And when the 91st MLB AllStar Game is played Tuesday in Denver, Ohtani will make history yet again, representing the American League as a DH and starting pitcher.
Oh, yeah. He’s also in Monday’s Home Run Derby, which is when Ohtani’s name could really take off and we could all witness a Jackson-like All-Star moment like its 1989 again.
“It’s kind of like the big kid on the little league team that is just stronger than everyone and can hit and just throws harder,” said veteran Astros catcher Jason Castro, who played with Ohtani on the Angels in 2020.
Castro remembers Ohtani as a dedicated athlete who “cares a lot.”
This also stood out: “He’s a bigger guy than I think people realize,” Castro said.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound native of Oshu, Japan, crushed June: .304 average, 13 homers, 23 RBIs, six doubles, 16 walks and a 1.312 OPS.
After a disappointing 44-game run during MLB’s coronavirus-shortened 2020 season, Ohtani has spent the first half of this season putting up numbers that haven’t been seen Ruth’s early years as the roaring 1920s approached.
Ruth with Boston way back in 1919: .322 average, 29 homers, 113 RBIs, 1.114 OPS at the plate; 9-5, 2.97 ERA in 17 games (15 starts) on the mound.
One of the greatest players of all-time also hit 714 career home runs and went 23-12 with a deGrom-like 1.75 ERA as a pitcher in 1916, so it’s a little early to place the fourth-year Angel in the same historic stratosphere as Ruth.
Ohtani also must finish this 162-game campaign as strong as he has started it and, ideally, find a way to push the annually disappointing Angels into the playoffs.
Then again, Babe didn’t have to consistently face the same high-powered relievers and specialists that Showtime does in 2021, or deal with shifts, launch angles and intricate video breakdowns.
Hitting and pitching like this, in this highly refined era, is even more special.
“If Zack Greinke wanted to be a two-way guy from early on, he was probably a guy that could have done it. So there are guys that could have done it,” Castro said. “But (Ohtani is) just doing it at such a high level. And especially nowadays that kids are specializing so young, you don’t really see the two-way guys as often.”
Because I wasn’t alive in 1919, I’ve never seen anything like what Ohtani is doing.
More than 100 years later, young MLB stars are putting up numbers that could wow us for another 100 years.
I remember the fascinating buzz that followed a young Ken Griffey Jr. The fawning praise that surrounded Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa from coast to coast — before their awesome numbers never looked the same.
MLB is missing a generational opportunity right now.
Tatis, Guerrero and deGrom deserve larger stages and more national coverage.
Ohtani should be the leading conversation in sports.
Then again, I guess it’s just too easy for the talking heads to keep screaming about LeBron James and Aaron Rodgers nowadays.
“It’s really kind of a special time for the talent just leaguewide. It’s just really incredible to see,” Castro said. “Then to see guys just dominate and stand out above where everybody else is, it’s something that should be given more credit than it has. I think guys like deGrom and Ohtani are starting to get that a little bit now, where people are starting to realize what they’re actually doing is incredibly special.”
Anyone know where to find a good deal on an Ohtani rookie card?
I know someone who’s seriously interested.