Talk | Shohei Ohtani is already the first person in Asian sports, and he has not surpassed Yao Ming, Liu Xiang, and Sun Xingmin
Written by Horsen
Editor|Zhang Zhongliang
The biggest contract in the history of professional sports has just arrived.
10 years, 700 million (unit: US dollars, if not specifically indicated below, it is the same US dollar).
Shohei Ohtani, who had just signed a sky-high contract, appeared with the Los Angeles Dodgers
Not James (130 million in 2 years) and Curry (215 million in 4 years), the biggest contract in the current NBA was refreshed by Jaylen Brown of the Celtics this summer with 304 million for five years.
Not Messi (2.5 years, 125 million) and Ronaldo (3 years, 536 million), the largest contract for a professional player in football is Mbappe's 3 years and 690 million.
Nor is it the NFL (Major League Football) generation of Marhomes (450 million in 10 years).
The sky-high contract was awarded to a Japanese named Shohei Ohtani, who currently plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers of the MLB (Major League Baseball).
Japanese media reported that Shohei Ohtani signed a 10-year contract of 700 million US dollars (about 101.5 billion yen)
So, how strong is this Shohei Ohtani that the Dodgers willingly offered the biggest contract in history?
Compared with the well-known Yao Ming and Sun Xingmin, can Shohei Ohtani become or have the opportunity to become the first person in the history of Asian sports?
01 A monster from the East
Let's be honest, MLB has always been a league full of monsters.
There are horror pitchers like De Grom, Gerrit Cole and Chezel, as well as heavy artillery hitters like Aaron Judge, Murch Bates and Juan Soto.
However, among this group of talented monsters, Shohei Ohtani is still the most conspicuous one.
Because of the label on his body - "two knife stream".
The so-called two-knife stream means that Shohei Ohtani not only serves as the main pitcher in the team, but also bears the burden of the top four bats in the team's hitting rounds.
"Pitcher" Shohei Ohtani
If you haven't watched baseball or don't know the rules of baseball, you may not understand it, isn't this just shooting and playing, what is the rarity?
The essence of baseball is a game of "the hitter tries to knock the ball thrown by the pitcher away".
A team's pitcher is almost the core soul of the team, and the focus of the whole game, and his battle of wits with the opposing batting line constitutes the most exciting tactical game in a baseball game.
After understanding this, everyone should understand that the pitcher of a team spends almost most of his time in the usual practice Xi on how to practice Xi pitching, and even if he hits the ball in the game, he will generally be arranged in the last two strokes in the batting round.
Only the strongest batter on the team will be placed in the first four, and the fourth batter will be the strongest of the strongest - so we will see the "fateful matchup between the pitcher and the fourth batter in those classic baseball comics" many times.
Under normal circumstances, it is impossible for a team's coach to allow a pitcher to practice Xi striking a lot.
Because this behavior is like a football coach letting the star striker with the most goals in the team spend a lot of time Xi man-marking, positioning and hand-to-hand defense.
Even though baseball is a turn-by-turn game, the metaphor is pretty much fine.
Therefore, a "two-knife stream" game like Shohei Ohtani, which is both wanted and wanted, will generally be considered to be crazy for wanting to be a conspicuous bag, and it is impossible to be supported.
However, isn't the word "genius" specially tailored for those who break common sense?
Shohei Ohtani started in the Japanese domestic middle school league and later debuted in the Japanese Major League Baseball, and he has always insisted on his second sword.
"Hitter" Shohei Ohtani
Whether it is a pitcher or a hitter, these two roles have been achieved to the extreme by Shohei Ohtani.
AS A PITCHER, HE IS NOT ONLY ABLE TO THROW A POWERFUL FAST BALL OF MORE THAN 160KM/H, SETTING A NEW RECORD FOR THE SPEED OF KOSHIEN AND NIPPON BASEBALL, BUT ALSO HIS PITCHING IS ALSO FULL OF VARIETY, AND HE IS RECOGNIZED AS THE MOST PRESSING PITCHER IN THE LEAGUE.
In just his second year in Major League Baseball, the young Shohei Ohtani achieved the astonishing achievement of "10 wins and 10 hits".
The word "win" here is the "winning shot" in baseball terminology, which refers to a pitcher who makes five or more innings in a game and has the team leading the score for the time he throws his main shot. The number of wins is a rough indication of a pitcher's suppressive power, and generally if the number exceeds 10, the pitcher is a good enough starting pitcher.
The word "boom" here is the "home run" in baseball terminology, which means that a hitter blasts the ball off the outfield guardrail. The number of home runs is a sign of a batter's strength, and if the number is above 10, it means that the batter is good enough to be a top-notch lineman.
In the history of professional baseball in the world, only Babe Ruth (achieved in 1918), known as the god of baseball by Americans, and Kim Shing Han, a legendary player of Korean professional baseball, were able to achieve the achievement of "10 wins + 10 hits".
Speaking of which, everyone should be able to understand more or less what kind of monster Shohei Ohtani is.
He is both Tatsuya Uesugi and Kunimi Hiru, and Akio Nitta and Hero Tachibana.
If there is such a star in the world of football, who is not only the heart of the team's attack, who can score in almost every game, but also the heart of the team's defense, who can lock down the star players on the opposite side in almost every game - he is Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Nesta and Van Dijk - can you imagine how many fans will go crazy for such a person?
02 Japan's national hero
Shohei Ohtani seems to have always been very clear that his abilities are far beyond the limits of the general sense that everyone understands, so every time he chooses his career, he attaches great importance to whether the environment in which he is located can tolerate such an "outlier" as himself.
In 2013, at the age of 18, Shohei Ohtani was faced with the choice of whether to make his debut in the United States or Japan after deciding to become a professional footballer, but Hokkaido's head coach of the Japan Ham Fighters, Hideki Kuriyama, told him that if Oko's team played under him, his second-class style of play would be strongly supported.
In 2023, the WBC Japan team won the championship, and the coach was none other than Shohei Ohtani's mentor Hideki Kuriyama
So after several trade-offs, Shohei Ohtani chose to play in Japanese professional baseball, and under the training of coach Kuriyama, he not only successfully carried forward his second sword, but also won the league championship in 2016.
In 2018, Shohei Ohtani decided to leave Japan to play in the American Professional League, but most of the MLB team was suspicious of such a second-class player, and most of the discussions persuaded him to give up one and focus on the other.
Only the Los Angeles Angels chose to support Shohei Ohtani to continue his own path.
So, there is no doubt that Shohei Ohtani naturally chose the Los Angeles Angels as his next stop in MLB.
But for this two-way choice, most of the American media have unanimously made a negative evaluation - after all, Babe Ruth is already a figure a hundred years ago, and even the former god of baseball, strictly speaking, has only retained a two-year state.
A yellow-skinned Japanese who wants to stick to his second class in the world's best baseball league and among groups of talented monsters in today's highly developed competitive sports 100 years later?
How could it be done!
But after three years of running-in, Shohei Ohtani's performance was getting better and better, and finally, in 2021, he ushered in an all-out explosion: as a pitcher, he scored nine winning shots and 156 strikeouts, and as a batter, he hit 46 home runs.
The fans went crazy for him, and the insiders were amazed by him.
This year, Shohei Ohtani was named the MLB MVP of the season, unanimous vote.
Tokyo Tower lit up the Los Angeles Angels in celebration of Shohei Ohtani being the 2021 MLB MVP
Even the most demanding American media have to admit at this time that this Japanese is indeed different.
But his fury continues.
In 2022, Shohei Ohtani threw 219 strikeouts, knocked out 160 hits, and finally scored 15 wins and 34 hits, replicating the 10-10 record of Babe Ruth in MLB a hundred years ago.
Helplessly, this year, Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees felt hot, and the inexplicable 62 hits successfully broke the 61-year-old MLB record and snatched the MVP.
Shohei Ohtani in 2023 continues to evolve!
As a pitcher, he added chipping, stretching and lethal slides to his arsenal in addition to his regular straight and finger shots, scoring a 31.5 percent strikeout rate and 132 strikeouts and winning seven games with the Angels struggling to hit the line.
As a batter, his career batting average and base percentage broke the .300 and .400 markers for the first time, scoring 32 hits and hitting .302 hits, ranking 6th in the league and 2nd in 71 RBIs.
If it weren't for the accidental injury, Shohei Ohtani would undoubtedly have another 10-10 win and 10 hits this year - but even so, he still locked up the unanimous MVP with his performance for most of the season.
Unanimous vote was elected MVP, Shohei Ohtani "scored twice"
The highlight of Ohtani's entire career came at this year's World Baseball Classic (WBC), the World Cup for baseball.
Shohei Ohtani led Japan all the way to the final, and their opponents, without a doubt, were the United States.
In the first half of the ninth inning, the Japanese team led 3-2, and the United States team was caught two outs, as long as Shohei Ohtani eliminated the last hitter, then the Japanese team will successfully win the cup.
The American player standing in the strike zone at this time is Mike Trout, a 10-time MLB All-Star, a three-time MLB MVP winner, and currently playing with Shohei Ohtani for the Los Angeles Angels.
The first five shots, two good and three bad.
All the fateful duel scenes in the hot-blooded baseball comics have been collected at this moment.
On his final throw, Shohei Ohtani pulled out the deadliest slider in his arsenal – 87km at pace with a perfect arc.
In the end, Trout swung into the air, Shohei Ohtani struck out, and the Japanese team won the championship.
Shohei Ohtani won the WBC MVP, Best Pitcher, and Best Designated Batting awards
Shohei Ohtani played in all seven games of the WBC, hitting 10 hits from 23 hits, including four second base hits and one home run, and contributing 8 points to the Japanese team.
There is no doubt that the MVP of this year's WBC is not a second person, but the best pitcher and best designated batting awards were also won by Shohei Ohtani at the same time, but he set a new record for the WBC.
03 The first person in Asia?
As a professional baseball player, Shohei Ohtani can also be called extremely top-notch, and if you take into account his status as a second-class player, then it seems reasonable to be called "unique".
So, can it be concluded that Shohei Ohtani has been promoted to the number one person in Asian sports? I am afraid that this point is still up for debate.
First of all, in terms of influence, although Shohei Ohtani is rare in the world, the sport of baseball is still a little too small after all.
Admittedly, Shohei Ohtani's commercial value and influence have already exploded, with more than 40 million sponsorship endorsements per year and 6.4 million INS followers, both of which are far ahead of all other MLB players.
But baseball audiences around the world are almost non-existent, with the exception of the United States, Cuba, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan Province of China.
As a result, Shohei Ohtani's global influence is in fact extremely limited.
At least in China, India, the two most populous Asian countries, Shohei Ohtani is almost unremarkable.
And even in Europe, Shohei Ohtani is unlikely to compete with the familiar Son Xingmin.
Shohei Ohtani's influence is far less than that of Son Heung-min
Secondly, in terms of project dominance, Shohei Ohtani's track record is not blameless.
Two unanimous MVPs and one MBC championship are certainly remarkable, but if you only talk about Japanese baseball players, Daisuke Matsuzaka's achievements as a pitcher can also be called legendary, and monster hitters like Ichiro Suzuki have also won MLB MVPs, and these two are the core players who have led the Japanese team to win two MBC championships!
Not to mention the horror record of the ancient beast king Sadaji, who has won 9 MVPs in MLB!
Even if it is only at the moment, no one denies Shohei Ohtani's ability to attract gold, but an embarrassing record is that Shohei Ohtani has been in MLB for five years, not only has he not won any championships, but he has not even entered the playoffs once!
The brilliance of individual honor and the barrenness of team honor form a sharp contrast.
From this point of view, Shohei Ohtani is not far behind Sun Xingmin and Yao Ming, and the same niche project, kings like Lin Dan and Lv Xiaojun, Shohei Ohtani will inevitably be dwarfed, not to mention Pacquiao, who still has 8 gold belts in his hand, and Liu Xiang, a mythical figure who broke the limit of the yellow race.
This is probably a big reason why Shohei Ohtani switched from the Angels to the Dodgers this year - he really needs the accumulation of team honors.
Shohei Ohtani, who changed from red to blue and switched to his rival in the same city, only had the championship
Finally, and most importantly, there is no single standard for GOAT in team sports.
For example, the three recognized champions in football, Pele, Maradona and Messi, it is difficult to even say why they can really be crowned kings other than the necessary World Cup titles.
Another example is Jordan, the recognized god of basketball, whose number of championships and scoring points are not the first in history.
Therefore, even if Shohei Ohtani really accumulates enough team honors in the future to compete for the first person in Asian sports, he may not actually be recognized.
After all, the GOAT is the GOAT because it is uncontroversial.
In other words, if there really is such a "first person in Asian sports", I am afraid that we do not need to discuss it, and everyone will have one, the only one and a common answer in their hearts.
Of course, Shohei Ohtani probably won't care too much about such a false name, for him, the most important thing in the future is probably to continue to stick to his second-class path and continue to impact the highest point of baseball.
Only purity can achieve brilliance.