OHTANI IS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST ATHLETE, WITH EVERYTHING WORTH WATCHING
Whether it’s hitting a batting-practice homer or making us ask how many bombs he might rip this year — 50 or 60 or 70 or 74? — he demands upright attention larger than Messi or Mahomes or other greats
He waited half an Arizona day for the best pitch, then found it. He pulled the ball over the right-field fence and kept his bat suspended, lifting his left leg and pointing it toward the catcher in what could be — will he ever say? — a Shohei Ohtani power gesture. The fans suddenly swooned with a “Whoooooo!” on a backfield in Glendale, where houses waited for more and trees paused on the left-field line.
This was his first batting-practice hello against live pitching in the uniform of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the swing we’ve anticipated since he underwent September elbow surgery that prevents him from hurling until next season. Ohtani can hit home runs with a pad on his reconstructed arm, including 13 in 26 swings during simple practice Friday and 33 in 76 tries last week. But this was his first against a real-life hurler, reliever J.P. Feyereisen, who was counseled by teammate Evan Phillips.
“Evan said I should go get the baseball and get it signed by him,” he said.
Get used to the otherworldly mentions.
Rather than say we are scanning a celestial force, let’s just assume Ohtani is the biggest athlete on the planet. Everything he attempts this spring — if not his next 10 years in Dodger Stadium — will surpass our sights of Lionel Messi, Patrick Mahomes, LeBron James, Caitlin Clark and whatever global athletes are placed on our plates. In a sport otherwise struggling, Ohtani is a phenomenon worth watching when little else qualifies in the major leagues. The NFL rules the American domain as soccer rules the international kingdom. Yet he remains the larger purview, especially when he adds throws to his swings. We are observing the ultimate two-way player, a man who could confront the Barry Bonds record and win 20 games in the same season. There are no limits to our conversations.
“We’ve got a guy that our great-grandchildren are going to be talking about, just like we talk about Babe Ruth, we’re going to be talking about Shohei,” said Freddie Freeman, who bats ahead of Ohtani in a frightening top three in the order.
“It’s hard to ignore who he is as a ballplayer, the contract,” said manager Dave Roberts, referring to his $700 million deal.
And as he merely bats this year, after hitting .304 with 44 homers while missing the last month of 2023? “I feel like there’s not just one level, but several levels ahead offensive-wise,” Ohtani said.
Several levels? Without moundwork stress every five or six days, will he push 50 or 60 homers, such as Aaron Judge’s 62 that established an American League mark? Or the 73 of Bonds? His all-time “record” was performed in 2001 with performance-enhancing drugs, of which Ohtani has avoided. Roberts will be front and center in such talk, having spent time in Bonds’ clubhouse that forgettable season. Make this clear: He already loves Ohtani and hasn’t said similar things about the moody, self-centered Bonds. “People gravitate toward Shohei,” he said. “I think some superstars, you have that walking-on-eggshells. With Shohei, I know that’s what he would not want. He wants to be like everyone else and just help us win a championship. He is a very likable person. He’s very friendly. He likes to make friends.”
The polar opposite would be Bonds. “I think as far as talent, Barry was the most talented player I’ve ever played with,” Roberts said. “Shohei probably has a chance to be the most talented player to ever play the game of baseball. So I’m eager to get to know him more, to watch him on a day-to-day. Barry was very intentional about his work. Everything was done with a purpose. The thing about Shohei I’m really excited about is, all he talks about is winning. Speaking for everyone in the clubhouse, when you get a player like that and his only goal is to win a championship, that resonates with everyone.”
With Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a daily roster that begs forgiveness — with more additions to come — the Dodgers are aware of their position as abuse targets. Imagine when Ohtani and his mates show up anywhere, whether it’s pennant-rival Atlanta or never-mind Pittsburgh? Imagine Mookie Betts, with his $365 million deal, sitting in the second row of Guggenheim Baseball contracts. When spring games begin this week, they must absorb the awe and the hatred.
“We have to embrace it,” Betts said. “Every team that we play against, they’re going to come for the Dodgers. We have to embrace that and fight back.”
“If people want to call us the villains, that’s fine,” Max Muncy said. “It doesn’t change who we are in the clubhouse. It doesn’t change who we are to fans. We’ve got to go out there and perform.”
Said Clayton Kershaw, who was blown away by the acquisitions and returned for a one-year contract going on 36: “It’s been pretty amazing to watch, honestly. There definitely is a part of me that wanted to be a part of that. The talent is the best I’ve ever been a part of.”
With Ohtani, who never has reached the postseason, they will face teams who possibly could dethrone them. The Braves and Phillies exist in the National League. But already, the owner of a major financial franchise says the Dodgers are all but uncatchable after spending more than $1 billion to sign Ohtani and Yamamoto. Why even have a World Series, suggests Tom Ricketts of the Chicago Cubs, who won’t budge on signing Cody Bellinger as other teams play games with Scott Boras’ five free agents? Don’t the Dodgers have $320 million to spend annually with the local $8.35 billion TV deal? Never mind America’s third-highest population base inside Ricketts’ market. “Their television revenues will continue to grow up into the future while everyone’s are dropping pretty quickly,” he said. “So they’re going to have that advantage going forward for a long time.”
Still, outgoing commissioner Rob Manfred — in January 2029, mind you — hopes for the Arizona Diamondbacks to reemerge from last fall. “We always watch trends in the market. I think a concern for baseball, has always been, since I started in 1988, disparity in revenue and on the payroll side. Having said that, last year, we were talking about a different team eating up players, or two,” he said. “And unless my recollection is bad, neither one of them were at that event we hold in late October or early November, right? It’s the time of year to fret about disparity. My real non-answer is, we’ll see how it goes.”
Uh, it’s one thing to have the outsized payroll of the New York Mets and sign Shohei. The Dodgers even enjoy how they josh with him, with infielder Miguel Rojas suggesting Ohtani might have unplanned toilet time on the team bus. “We started talking about his first bus ride will be with us — you know, like, what he’s gonna have to tell us on the bus," Rojas said. “I’m telling you right now, Shohei, if you get bored and you get three strikes on the bus, you’re gonna go to the (toilet). I don’t care if you get $700 million, you’d better come prepared for your first bus trip because the rules are the rules.”
Yikes. Shohei and the toilet. Better, when a young mother accidentally pushed a stroller onto the field last week, Ohtani sprung up and took a photo with her. Or, out of nowhere, he asked Freeman about “Charlie.” That would be the first baseman’s son, some 17 months after the two were introduced at an All-Star Game.
“Every single day: ‘Where’s Charlie?’ ” Freeman said.
Maybe someday, Shohei Ohtani will explain why his left leg protrudes after he hits a home run. I do know we’ll be listening. And watching. And wondering if he can blast it 74 times in one season.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.