Speaking of Shohei Ohtani, from the Heart and Gut

I am not 100% successful, but I try to keep my site the product of passion (perhaps I am stealing this from Robbie Marriage’s Substack, “Sports Passion Project”), not obligation. The pressure to say something about Shohei Ohtani’s night for the ages is certainly great, but I really do think I am excited by it, and have some things to say. So have a listen.

First, if this guy doesn’t have a flair for the dramatic, the Poetry Gods are certainly with him. He accomplishes his 40-40 on a walk-off grand slam; he hits 3 home runs and has 6 hits in his 50-50 game. What will the postseason and Ohtani bring? Let’s try to keep our expectations in check so we appreciate it if there is some magic. I am an agnostic when it comes to magic, so I am not counting on fireworks, aside from the standpoint that this guy is a phenomenal ballplayer. But I live to be surprised.

I really do think 50-50 is amazing. I am not convinced I will see it again. You can’t just conjure 50 home runs. Fifty steals takes less ability, but is clearly only an option for a few. Ohtani’s 93% success rate on his steals assures the integrity of his achievement. Rickey Henderson’s single-season steals record has less claim to purity, since he was caught a record 42 times.

Then there is the durability aspect. Few sluggers are willing to risk themselves by attempting so many stolen bases. All of those throws back to first also mean you risk jamming your wrists and fingers. Baseballs’ new rules governing throws to first, interestingly, do make it easier for sluggers to partake in the stealing fun, and the rules increase the chances for big home run/steal combinations.

Something else I thought about this morning, upon hearing the news, is how good it would feel to be Shohei Ohtani. Not just in general, but to have had this unconscious moment. Unless you are an incredibly team-oriented person, it must be a high greatly exceeding winning a World Series. He can say whatever he likes in supplying his career highlight, but I have my guess as to what it is. And he will never top this.

He is a genuine hero, not because he has done anything for us, but in the sense that he makes us want to be him. We are jealous of him, in a good way.

I see the fun he is having, by the way, just watching him. When I talk about the transcendent experience he is having, I am talking about my intuiting of his inner feelings, but he also seems to be having just straightforward fun, and to exude a confidence that almost makes it seem he doesn’t have a care in the world.

I watched him hit a home run some 117 MPH right down the line a couple of weeks ago. There was a review about whether it was fair or foul. Ohtani had hit the ball so far, the ball was hard to see, in relation to the foul pole. And Ohtani didn’t seem at all on edge about the result of the review. If the home run counted, great. If not, he thought he’d just go up and hit another one.

There is so much we don’t see coming. That is one of the beauties of sports. But this seems unfathomable in its own unique way, I suppose because the achievement is monumental. This has become fact, that Ohtani, a dual pitcher, has gone 50-50, but let’s pinch ourselves and appreciate it. Who saw 50 steals in his future when he signed in America? Didn’t he have enough to do trying to master pitching, and hitting particularly? I remember reading scouts saying in a Sports Illustrated article that he would hit home runs but not be an all-around hitter.

Finally, I cannot ignore that one of Ohtani’s six hits and three home runs came off position player Vidal Brujan. Last year, Joe Posnanski took my question about how he would feel if the first-ever 5 HR game came off a position player. I feel this concern has come to fruition, to an extent. (Joe, by the way, said he would still rejoice in the achievement, but yes, it wouldn’t be entirely without an asterisk.) Position player pitching is simply, a perversion and a scourge that must be greatly curtailed, if not eradicated. The Marlins did not have to do this. They are not in contention, so they don’t need to rest their pitchers, from that standpoint. The season is almost over. Brujan was only the fifth “pitcher” to come into the game for them, hardly an elevated count, by today’s standards.

I think the only thing this night lacked was Vin Scully to commemorate it. Would that he had lived to see it, and to see Ohtani a Dodger.

Life is good. Shohei is good.