By Bill Watanabe
For the past few months, since the start of Major League Baseball (MLB), the city and the Nikkei community have been abuzz regarding the amazing exploits of Shohei Ohtani.
Actually, the city has been focused on Shohei ever since he signed the mind-boggling $700 million contract, most of which he deferred so that the team could sign Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto for another $300 million! All Dodger fans began to dream big for the post-season and perhaps a world championship!
The Dodger organization, through the efforts of the O’Malley family, has pioneered connections with Japanese baseball since the 1950s. But for many years, the perception of Japanese baseball in America was regarded as not MLB-level – perhaps more at the Triple-A level of the minor leagues.
That perception began to change when Hideo Nomo came to town in 1995 – and he commenced striking out opposing MLB batters at a record pace and eventually threw two no-hitters; one of Nomo’s no-hitters was at Coors Field in Denver, and because of the thin air and altitude, is still the only no-hitter in that stadium.
Nomo showed that he could compete at a high level against major league competition and opened the door for other succeeding Japanese players such as Yu Darvish, Kenta Maeda, and the incomparable Ichiro Suzuki.
It is likely Ichiro, in 2025, will become the first Asian player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Pa. I would estimate that had Ichiro played in the major leagues for his entire career, he would be perhaps the top career hitter in MLB history. Ichiro has shown without a doubt that elite Japanese players are no longer Triple-A level but equal to the best players in MLB.
However, now with Shohei, words are being used such as “the greatest player ever” or at least since Babe Ruth, who was setting records nearly a century ago (although the Babe was nowhere near the base-stealing threat that Shohei is). Shohei is demonstrating a quality of play that exceeds major league players for the past 100 years. Shohei’s level of play is not just equal to MLB level but supersedes even the greatest elite players in all of Major League Baseball.
His popularity is truly amazing. I attended the game where the Dodgers were giving out Shohei bobblehead dolls. Lines to get into the stadium circled the stadium hours before the gates opened. It seemed every jersey worn by fans were Shohei’s No. 17, with a few sprinkled naming Betts or Freeman or Kershaw.
I asked one of the parking lot attendants – an older fellow who looked like he had been to many ball games – if he had ever seen a line like this before at Dodger Stadium and he shook his head and said, “Not even for a World Series!”
Recently when the Dodgers played the Padres, there was an inning where Japanese pitcher Darvish was facing Japanese batter Ohtani and Japanese American Higashioka was the catcher. Can Nikkei players succeed and excel in the majors? YES THEY CAN!
Bill Watanabe writes from Silver Lake near Downtown Los Angeles and can be contacted at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.