When Shohei Ohtani stares into the sun, the sun blinks

People are asking about him. Really? That much? Yes, that much. Why? Here is some form of why, although nothing makes sense anymore.

In baseball, you have a guy throwing a ball to another guy hitting the ball. Those roles are usually very separate. What makes you good at throwing the ball makes you very bad at hitting the ball, and vice-versa, to the point where people usually sculpt their entire bodies to do one or the other.

Shohei Ohtani is the first viably excellent player in over a century who can do both. Prior to him, the most recent one was a guy named Babe Ruth, whom I think you know. Over that century, the acts of hitting & pitching have only become more polarized & specific, making someone like Ohtani considerably less likely to exist. And he is not only doing both, he is doing both well & consistently. He can hit two home runs in a game where he strikes out 9. He is good at baserunning, good at managing the flow of the game, and good at hitting home runs that sound like a fucking construction site. He is so good that MLB reworked the literal rules of baseball to facilitate him hitting & pitching in the same game.

Until recently, he played for the Angels, a team that was not known for winning. And to be clear, he is not just here for the journey. He really, really wants to win. Watch the final at-bat between the American & Japanese national teams at the World Baseball Classic, where he strikes out his Angels teammate(!) Mike Trout, widely considered the other best player in baseball. Normally a starter who goes the distance with less aggressive throws, here he’s throwing over 100 as a closer. Fast-forward to 2:42 of that video. Look at his face as he whips his glove & hat across the field and embraces his teammates. He exists on this plane for one reason: so he can do that again, as many times as possible.