Ohtani Leads Japan In WBC
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Joshua Garcia
Take a second and think of all the memorable home runs you have seen in your baseball watching life, ok, now let me challenge those with a Shoehi Ohtani shot. When the ball left the pitcher’s hand at the Kyocera Dome, he didn’t quite know what he was in for next.
A roar is an understatement, as the volume of the ferocious crowd in Tokyo was amplified by it’s indoor setting following Shohei Ohtani absolutely launching a ball into the center field seats. If you are familiar with the Master’s work, you know it wasn’t just any regular dinger, he doesn’t do those.
Reminiscent of Adrian Beltre once accomplishing a similar impressive feat, Ohtani dropped to one knee to meet a dying breaking ball and punished it by sending it 420 feet to it’s room in the Tokyo crowd. If that wasn’t enough to send his countrymen into a frenzy, he added a second home run in the game and waved his arms in the air to the crowd as if to say, “We Are Ready”.
Much has been made of this tournament’s roster for the team nicknamed the Samurai. It is full of All-Stars and flat out, legends, all which will pull together under the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ banner to try and bring home the nation’s third World Championship in their favorite sport. It will feature the likes of a two-headed monster in the rotation of Yu Darvish and Shoehi Ohtani and will sport a lineup featuring Cubs’ sensation Seiya Suzuki and possibly Japan’s next best superstar in Munetaka Murakami.
A hidden headline which won’t make news in Japan, but here in the United States will be front page, is Shohei Ohtani on the international stage against the best talent in games that actually matter. The Los Angeles Angels have not exactly put Ohtani in the position to win and play big games, something his country will now provide him in this tournament.
Shoehei Ohtani is set to be a free agent after the 2023 season and now, for the first time will show what he brings in pressure filled games, a sight MLB teams interested in shelling out a possible $500 Million for his services would love to behold. Bleacher Report has stated, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the favorite to land the biggest fish since Babe Ruth, but the entire world will definitely be watching to see what the third favorite (+275) to win the 2023 World Baseball Classic will accomplish with the great Shohei Ohtani at the helm. Can Japan reaffirm itself as the World Champions of Baseball?
