RESPECT, PLEASE
Ohtani is out making noise like Babe, yet so few fans seem to be listening
A tree is falling in the baseball woods. A giant sequoia. But the tumbling timber is not making much of a sound because not enough hear it.
I am referring to Shohei Ohtani, known in some circles as “Who?”
There is much that can be said about Ohtani, the home runhitting starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, who in some circles, depending on the date on your birth certificate, are still known as the California Angels, and in other circles as the Anaheim Angels. (That is an issue. If you can’t correctly name the team, how can you expect to name its players?)
There is much that can be said, but not enough is being said, considering the 27-year-old Japanese double threat is having one of the best — arguably the best — season in major league
history. That covers a lot of ground. Cooperstown ground. Ohtani is rubbing elbows with the biggest names in baseball lore. The Babe included.
Ohtani should be a household name, but in many households, including those housing baseball families, he is not.
I asked my baseball go-to guy, Kent Mercker, about Ohtani.
“I’m out of the game but still working in the game as an agent,” said Mercker, a former major league pitcher from Dublin. “I still pay attention as if I’m playing. What he is doing is truly amazing. My daughters love the game, too, but if you ask them who Ohtani is they probably wouldn’t know.”
That is not Merck tossing his girls under the bus. Rather, he is seating them on the bus with the millions of others who maybe have heard of Ohtani but likely cannot pinpoint his team or accomplishments.
For the uninformed, Ohtani leads baseball with 40 home runs, which itself is not huge headline news. Except he also is 8-1 as a pitcher, which is like saying Tom Brady led the NFL in interceptions last season. Making them, not throwing them.
To be fair, it’s not like Ohtani is being ignored. But he is not being celebrated as he should.
Former Dispatch columnist Bob Hunter knows baseball almost as well as he knows Columbus sports history. Hunts covered the Cincinnati Reds and served as secretary of the Cincinnati chapter of the BBWAA from 1993 to 2016. He agrees that Ohtani’s season is receiving short-shrift, but also understands why.
“The biggest reason he is probably not front and center as he should be is because he plays on the West Coast,” Hunter said. “If he played for the Yankees we’d be sick of hearing about him. It would be, ‘Oh my god
not another Ohtani story.’ ”
Hunter pointed out that today’s baseball analytics also factor into the equation. Remove modern statistical categories like OPS+, WAR and SIERA and you’re left with home runs, RBI, hits, runs, ERA, strikeouts and wins and losses.
“I love the sport, but with some of the stats my eyes glaze over,” Hunter said, explaining that 25 years ago Ohtani’s numbers would be more eye-popping based on the non-analytical KISS. (Keep it Simple Stupid).
Ohtani leads the league with 40 home runs and is tied for third with 88 RBI. As a DH he is hitting .272 (57th) and his 18 stolen bases tie for ninth. Where things get remarkable is when adding his pitching stats: 8-1 in 18 starts with a 3.35 ERA. Consider Babe Ruth’s numbers in 1919, the last season he was a fulltime pitcher: 9-5 with a 2.97 ERA. The Bambino also hit 29 home runs with 113 RBI while hitting .322. But he also faced fastball mphs in the mid-80s, not low-90s. And, as Mercker points out, Ruth faced the same pitcher all nine innings — that mid-80s fastball was down to mid-70s in later innings — compared to today’s hitters seeing four different arms every game.
“It’s a very valid comparison,” Mercker said of Ohtani vs. Ruth. “I’m not going that far yet, but if he does this for 10 to 15 years?”
Ohtani speaks little English, which hurts his brand in this country, and has produced his startling numbers in the midst of COVID and while competing for the limelight with the Tokyo Olympics. Add it up and it becomes easier to swallow why this story has not gone more viral.
Still, it should grab our attention when baseball veterans like Mercker and Hunter gush over a player to the point of mentioning him in the same breath as Babe Ruth. Shohei Ohtani should be more than a “Who?” roller@dispatch.com
@rollercd