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Shohei Ohtani’s season started with a no-fault betting scandal, including him getting what no one else in the 150-year history of professional baseball has, and possibly winning his third (most valuable) MVP. player) his career award.
It also seems increasingly likely that will lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to the World Series appears; It will be fitting for the rollercoaster campaign of 2024 to end with the face of Major League Baseball (MLB) joyfully lifting the Commissioner’s Trophy aloft.
Simply put, Ohtani is a baseball phenomenon. He is an icon in baseball’s homeland of Japan and has become the biggest sports star in the United States, something no other player has been able to do.
After dominating Japanese baseball for half a decade with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, he moved to the United States in 2018 at the age of 23 and joined the Los Angeles Angels. The history of Japanese stars switching to the MLB is a mixed bag, to say the least. For every success story in the form of Ichiro Suzuki or Hideki Matsui, there are plenty of highly-touted prospects.
And the challenge Ohtani faces is even greater, as he tries to become a two-way player — a hitter and jug. For context, there are no other two-way players in the MLB today and you have to go back to the first half of the 20th century to find anyone who did it successfully. Either pitching or hitting at the major league level is hard to believe but to do both…?
And Ohtani is not alone exercise two, he immediately excelled.
He won the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year award with the Angels in 2018 and after injuries marred his 2019 and 2020 campaigns, 2021 saw him rise to elite status and become the best player in baseball. He made history by dominating with the bat and the ball, getting voted AL MVP, and Sports News campaign ranked as the greatest season of all time, in any sport.
He was the AL MVP runner-up in 2022 after another blistering season before being unanimously voted to win the award for the second time following the 2023 campaign. However, despite his individual brilliance, the fact that he played for the Angels who were generally disliked meant that he never reached the playoffs. -off.
So last season, Ohtani took advantage of perhaps the most sought-after free agent in baseball history and made a short hop across Los Angeles to join the Dodgers. He signed a 10-year, $700m (£527m) contract – the biggest contract in American sports history for baseball’s most unique player.
It’s a match made in heaven, with the face of the sport joining one of the most famous and richest franchises in a huge media market, where the eyes of the country are always on him. But the scandal is just around the corner.
In March 2024, a shocking story shocked the world, as Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was arrested for being caught in an illegal gambling ring. Mizuhara will go on to plead guilty to bank and tax fraud after allegedly stealing nearly $17m from baseball’s biggest superstar to pay off his own illegal gambling debts.
Federal investigators said Mizuhara made about 19,000 bets between September 2021 and January 2024. Mizuhara’s winnings were more than $142 million, which he deposited in his own bank account and not Ohtani’s, but his losing bets were about $183 million — a net loss of nearly $41 million. .
Investigators found no evidence that Mizuhara had bet on baseball and prosecutors confirmed that there was no evidence that Ohtani was involved in or aware of Mizuhara’s gambling. Ohtani is considered a victim and is cooperating fully with investigators.
The revelation coincides with the start of the 2024 MLB season, Ohtani’s first as a Dodger, but has had no impact on his baseball performance. Although he hasn’t pitched this year as he recovers from elbow surgery, he has reached historic levels at the plate.
The 30-year-old entered the 50-50 club as he became the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season when, in a September 19 game against the Miami Marlins, he had six. hits of six at-bats – a single, two doubles, and three home runs – and stole two bases. It was one of the greatest single-game performances in sports history and got him over the threshold for a unique feat in MLB’s 150-year history. He finished the regular season playing in 159 games, with a .310 batting average and a league-leading 54 home runs, while stealing 59 bases.
After helping the Dodgers win the National League West with a 98-64 record, Ohtani finally has a chance to show what he can do in the playoffs. He gave a nice taste of what was to come when, in his first postseason game against the San Diego Padres, he hit a home run in the second inning.
The Dodgers finally battled to a tense 3-2 NL Divisional Series victory over the Padres and now lead the New York Mets 2-1 in the best-of-seven Championship Series after an 8-0 win in game three on Wednesday afternoon. The winner will advance to the World Series, where the New York Yankees or Cleveland Guardians await.
Ohtani has really struggled at the plate since that homer in game one against the Padres. He walked just five hits in his next 28 at-bats, with all five of those hits being singles. He doesn’t put the ball in or grab power.
But in the eighth round in Queens, the Japanese phenom blasted a monumental home run into the top tier of the stands at Citi Field as the Dodgers jumped from a 4-0 lead to 7-0 ahead with one swing of the bat. They are just two wins away from a World Series appearance and just their second title since 1988. Even that win came during the Covid-shortened 2020 season, with just 60 regular season games instead of the normal 162. Dodgers fans have been waiting a long time …
Baseball’s biggest and most unique star is very close to ending that drought and the celebration will be felt on both sides of the globe.
