I have to say that the Japanese really like to do some rankings. Not two days before that, a survey called "Japanese Teenagers' Favorite Athletes" was newly released. Among them, the popular figure skater Yusheng Yuxin in China ranked second, accounting for 9.4% of the total votes.
(Habu knot)
In first place was professional baseball player Shohei Otani, who accounted for 13% of the vote.
(Shohei Otani)
Compared to the familiar Feather Yusuke, this professional baseball player does not seem to be mentioned many times. However, in the same list in 2017, 2019 and 2021, Shohei Otani pushed Yusei to win the first place, which shows its popularity in Japan.
(2017, 2019, 2021 rankings)
So who is this Shohei Otani?
Shohei Otani (大谷湘平, Otani Shōhei, born July 5, 1994 in Okushu City, Iwate Prefecture ( formerly Mizusawa City ) is a Japanese professional baseball player who graduated from Hanamaki Higashi High School. A pitcher and outfielder, he started his professional baseball career in 2013 with the Hokkaido Japanese Ham Fighters of the Pacific League, a Japanese baseball agency, and is now a player in major league baseball los Angeles Angels.
From 2013 to 2017, Shohei Otani worked as a pitcher and fielder for the Hams and in 2016 threw a 165km/h fastball, the fastest ball speed record for a current Japanese pitcher. After the 2017 season, Otani signed with the Angels of the Major Leagues and was honored as the American League Rookie King of the Year in 2018.
(Shohei Otani in the competition)
With a height of 193 cm and a weight of 95 kg, Otani has an excellent talent in baseball, and he has reached a speed of 160 km/h when he was in his third year of high school. After joining the Japanese professional baseball team, in addition to maintaining his original four-slit speedball and sliding ball, he also practiced a new ball-way finger fork ball and used it in actual combat. At the same time, his ball speed has also increased with the growth of his career. According to the data, in 2013, Otani's average pitching speed was 149.2km/h, and by 2017, his average speed had risen to 155.5km/h, and in 2018, his average speed reached 97mph (156km/h).
In terms of pitching posture, Otani has changed from shooting in a three-quarters (oblique shoulder throwing) posture in high school to using a fixed top shoulder pitch (high-pressure pitching). Now, he not only has the excellent swing speed of energy-producing home runs, but also runs at a speed significantly higher than the average level, mainly responsible for designating the position of the hit (DH).
Due to his outstanding performance, Otani has already won awards in the Japanese professional baseball era, and he is still no less than after joining the American professional baseball team. In addition to the newcomer king of the year award, he has also won the best rookie award several times. He won Best Major League Player in 2021, being the first Asian athlete in history to win the award.
After signing with the Angels of America, Otani took a fitness test as required, and the other results were much higher than average, with only the vertical take-off, which only hovered near the average. In order to improve this data, Otani trained hard for a month, and the final result was exactly 25.4cm higher than a month ago.
I have to say that this is indeed a miracle.
(Focused Shohei Otani)
Talent and hard work have created shohei Otani now, and I wish Otani players all the best in their sports careers.