Shohei Ohtani is arguably the best baseball player of this era right now. Shohei is a Japanese-born baseball player who had a dream to play in the big leagues and eventually made that dream a reality. Ever since he entered the league, he has dominated the field as both a pitcher and a hitter. A combo that we haven’t seen since Babe Ruth. Ever since last year, Shohei Ohtani has been the face of baseball and has done nothing but keep improving and becoming the best player he can be.

Shohei Ohtani was born and raised in Oshu, Japan where the population was roughly 120,000 people. His father Toru played baseball his entire life and that was when Ohtani was given the spark to play ball. He and his brother Ryuta were pushed and given the best teachings from their father. They’d play catch for hours when Toru got home from his job at the Mitsubishi plant. Ever since then, he had fallen in love with the game. Before he played baseball he tried out badminton and swimming, where he competed with kids two years older than him. Shohei’s father was the coach of his elementary school baseball team and he said that Shohei would need to be better than everyone else on the team before he got to even play. So he practiced more and harder than any other kid there. When he got older, he made a chart where he expressed his goals from that age to where he is now. He said that he would make it to the big leagues and be great. Shohei’s strength was on another level when he was in Elementary school, while the best hitters for other teams hit only one or two home runs, he hit eleven over the wall!

Shohei joined the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in December 2012 where he started as a two-way player, pitching and hitting simultaneously. His name was recognized by America soon after, as he started progressing faster than any other player and showing extensive power. In  2017, Shohei was signed by the Anaheim Angels in California. He started slow, due to the increase of skill and high demand. But once he started getting into his rhythm, he showed the world what he was truly made of. Shohei had a 3.31 ERA with 63 strikeouts and 19 earned runs and for hitting he had a .285 batting average, which was a great season, and also one for opening his eyes to the true competition of major league baseball. Fast forward to now, Shohei is at the top of the league with a .310 average, 50 home runs, and also 50 stolen bases. This is one of the hardest things to do in baseball and he is the first person this season to enter the “50/50 club”. Overall, Shohei is a name to remember, for he is the best overall player in baseball right now and he still has many years to go.