MLB legends are in awe of Shohei Ohtani
Hall of Famers in awe of Shohei Ohtani
The baseball world is witnessing the Angels star put on the greatest show since Babe Ruth, whose 60-home run mark he may eclipse.
DENVER – Slugger Albert Pujols, the future Hall of Famer, stood by the batting cage three years ago in Orange County, California, when Shohei Ohtani started swinging.
Pujols looked. He stared. He gawked. He took out his cellphone and called Mark McGwire, his former Cardinals teammate, who 23 years ago broke Roger Maris’ season home run record.
“Mac, you aren’t going to believe this,” Pujols, then with the Angels, told McGwire. “This new guy from Japan that we have, he’s got more power than I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve never seen a guy hit the ball this far.”
McGwire, recalling the conversation, couldn’t help but question Pujols.
Come on, more power than anyone he’s ever seen?
You’re talking about an era with Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Cecil Fielder and McGwire.
“I’m telling you,” Pujols said, “I’ve never seen anything like it. Wait until you see this kid.”
Three years later, the entire baseball world is witnessing the absurd, with the Angels’ Ohtani putting on the greatest show since Babe Ruth.
He has an MLB-leading 33 home runs. He has a major league-leading 56 extra-base hits. He is tied for the American League lead with four triples while hitting .279. He has 70 RBI, third most in the major leagues. He has 12 stolen bases, making him the first player in baseball history to have this many homers and stolen bases before the All-Star break. And he is 4-1 with a 3.49 ERA, striking out 87 batters in 61 innings.
Oh yeah, he’s on pace to eclipse Maris’s 61- and Ruth’s 60-homer seasons.
“Oh, man, can you imagine?” says Diamondbacks great Luis Gonzalez, who had 35 homers at the 2001 All-Star break, fifth most in MLB history. “You hear all of the comparisons anyway to him and Babe Ruth, and to hit 60, that would be incredible. I really hope he does it; and if he does, this guy is going to be a living, breathing legend. He won’t be able to go anywhere in Japan. He’ll be like one of the Beatles.”
Ohtani’s talents are on gorgeous display over a 48-hour period this week. He might hit 500-foot shots in the Home Run Derby on Monday at Coors Field. You’ll see him bat at the All-Star Game on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, Fox), where he’s batting leadoff after being voted the starting DH.
And you’ll see him as the AL’s starting pitcher.
He just may be the greatest attraction in All-Star Game history.
“I saw it firsthand myself what he was capable of,” said Pujols, now with the Dodgers, “and now that he’s healthy, everyone is seeing what he can do. People are going to remember this All-Star Game for a long, long time, especially the Home Run Derby. He might hit one out of Denver.”
Says McGwire: “Damn, is he awe
some to see. What an athlete. Even his home run trots are fantastic. We can’t take what he’s doing for granted. It’s historical. It’s like Babe Ruth came back to life.
“He’s making it look effortless, too. You’re seeing these pitchers make adjustments, going up and down, wasting pitches, and he’s still hitting them all over the ballpark. You know that purple row of seats in right field that shows you’re sitting at 5,280 feet? I guarantee that’s in play with Shohei.”
Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas and Jim Thome, along with four other members of the pre-All-Star 30-homer club, spoke to USA TODAY Sports this past week and tried to describe what they’re witnessing with Ohtani and looking ahead.
“None of us have ever seen anything like it,” Thome says. “What an unbelievably great story. Can you imagine if he hits 60? It’s something you dream about. You’re talking about a pretty magical number.”
Says Jackson: “If he hits 60 home runs, that would be an incredible stat. Absolutely incredible.”
Matt Williams, who had 33 homers at the All-Star break and a major leagueleading 43 when the strike ended the 1994 season, may be in South Korea as manager of the Kia Tigers, but, oh, how Ohtani has caught his attention. “It’s crazy, just crazy what he’s doing,” he says. “It’s one thing to just be a DH, and hit 30 homers, but to do it as a pitcher, even if he had a 7.00 ERA, is remarkable. When I was hitting my homers, I had Barry Bonds behind me in the lineup. Mike Trout hasn’t even played in two months and he’s doing this. I love it.”
Five players in MLB history have hit 60 in a season: Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Maris and Ruth. Maris and Ruth are the only ones in the group who accomplished the feat without being under suspicion or admitting to steroid use.
If Ohtani hits 62, would he suddenly be declared baseball’s clean singleseason home run king?
“I don’t know,” Jackson says. “What this guy is doing is incredible, especially being a pitcher, too. But what Bonds did in 2001, steroids or not, might be the greatest season. I mean, he had 177 walks with those 73 homers. Can you imagine if they pitched to him? I don’t think we’ll see anything like that again.”
There have been plenty of players who were on pace to hit 60 homers at the All-Star break, but the last players to achieve the feat were Bonds and Sosa in 2001.
“You see a lot of guys pad their stats by the All-Star break,” Thomas says, “but in the second half, those pitchers get serious. They pull the plug on that dream. I think he can still hit 50, but 60, I don’t know. He’s going to be pitched differently.”
There may be a time in the dog days of the summer when fatigue suddenly overpowers him. No one in the 60-HR club threw a single pitch that season, let alone started every sixth day. The pandemic has prevented reporters from entering the clubhouse, but the media scrutiny still could be overwhelming.
“The thing that got to me was that I was 23 years old,” says Jackson, who had 37 home runs at the 1969 All-Star break and wound up hitting 10 in the second half. “I couldn’t quite handle the pressure. People were talking about breaking Babe Ruth’s record. I was a little young for it. If I was 28 or 29, I could have handled it; I could have hit 60. But I just wasn’t ready.”
Griffey is the only player who has produced three seasons of at least 30 homers before the break, and led the AL in homers four times, but never finished with more than 56. He insists it was nothing mentally or physically that curtailed his numbers but that pitchers approached him differently in the second half. “It’s not really fatigue,” he says, “it’s that you get fewer and fewer pitches to hit. In April, nobody cares how many homers you’re hitting. But when you start to pass people on the home run chart for the single-season record, that’s when pitchers start to take notice. Their concentration goes way up.”
Says Thome, who had 30 homers at the 2006 All-Star break and wound up with 42 for the White Sox: “Teams are going to start locking in on you to a degree. They know he’s red-hot. Will he get pitched to in close situations?”
Ohtani also has a burden that no one in the 30-homer pre-All-Star Game club ever had to face. He is a pitcher. He may be relegated to DH, but he has to throw bullpen sessions, take batting practice, watch video, study analytical charts on both opposing pitchers and hitters.
“Granted, it’s just DH,” All-Star Trout says, “but mentally, it’s a grind. Talking to the pitchers and seeing what they go through after a start, they’re worn out. They’re drained and sore. Ohtani goes out there and hits two homers.”
Maybe being a two-way player helps Ohtani, several sluggers suggest.
Says Thome: “I think this way he doesn’t have to think about it. The routine he has conditions himself to be locked in from both sides. I’m not sure anything is going to affect him that way.”
Ohtani made only two starts in 2019 and 2020 after having Tommy John surgery and suffering a strained forearm. He was strictly a hitter. In those two years (537 at-bats), he hit .259 with 25 homers and a .793 OPS.
“I still wonder what happens when he gets into the dog days of August,” Thome says. “Let’s face it, every guy feels it in his body with all of the aches and pains. But I’d sure love to see him do it because he’s very respectful to the game, he loves the game, and he gives young kids a chance to dream that they can do this, too.”
McGwire and others believe Ohtani’s success may open the door for more two-way players. Why not? He’s proving to every athlete it can be done.
The Reds’ Michael Lorenzen is a parttime outfielder and reliever. The Rays’ Brendan McKay is a two-way player.
“You could have had a lot of guys do it back in the day but weren’t allowed to do it,” Griffey says. “Guys like (shortstop) Shawon Dunston, (right fielder) Raul Mondesi, those guys had cannons for arms. I think they could have pitched, but you didn’t do it back then.”
Considering the stress of pitching and the greater possibility of incurring injuries, several of the greats would love to see just what Ohtani could accomplish if he were a full-time hitter.
“I think he’s wasting his time pitching,” says Thomas, who hit 32 homers in 1994 before the strike ended the season in August. “Why risk injuries when you can hit 50 homers and drive in 130 a year. I know the Angels need pitching, but ... find another pitcher. Let this guy hit. He’s the ideal right fielder with his arm, his speed and his instincts.”
Says Pujols: “I think at some point he’ll have to make a choice. It’s just so much wear and tear. If he sticks to hitting, I think he’ll be hitting 60-some homers a season, I really do. I think the Angels can get more production out of him from the plate, but since he loves to do both, and if he stays healthy, why take that away from him?”
Jackson, who remembers needing shoulder surgery from throwing batting practice, says it’s hard to believe Ohtani can keep doing both. “I just don’t know how this pitching and hitting is going to work out for him,” he said. “I don’t know what’s harder. Just throwing 15 minutes of batting practice, I was sore and tired. And he’s throwing 98 mph . ... How much longer can he do this?”
Who knows, McGwire says, maybe Ohtani can take a page out of the college playbook. He can be an everyday right fielder for eight innings, hit his 50 or 60 home runs, and then become Mariano Rivera in the ninth and close out games.
“I wouldn’t put that by him,” McGwire says. “Why couldn’t he do that? He could have Trout squatting down as a catcher in the outfield warming up Ohtani between innings before he comes in. It would be awesome.”
Four players have hit at least 40 home runs with 40 stolen bases, but the 50-50 club sits empty. With Ohtani’s power and speed, who’s to say he can’t do it?
Now, can you imagine what he may make as a free agent after 2023? How about the record he could shatter in salary arbitration? Ohtani is earning $3 million this year, $5.5 million in 2022 and is eligible for arbitration in 2023 before being eligible for free agency.
Forget about $400 million – we could have our first $500 million player.
“I was looking at his numbers the other day and I started thinking about it,” McGwire said. “What could he get in free agency? What he’s doing has never been done before. How do you quantify it? The sky’s the limit . ...
“He’s doing stuff that guys who are making $300 million haven’t ever done. We’re in uncharted waters. My goodness is he going to get paid.”
Why worry about the future; let’s savor the present.
“We always romanticize the past,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said, “and sometimes you miss what’s going on right in front of your very eyes.”