9781422269831

Chapter 1

Greatest Moments In the early years of Major League Baseball (MLB), there were plenty of ‘two-way’ players—those who pitched regularly (and well) while also hitting well. However, the prevalence of players skilled at both pitching and hitting declined early in the 20 th century and had been widely regarded as a relic of a bygone era for decades. As a result, modern players almost exclusively specialize in one or the other. However, Shohei Ohtani has single-handedly revitalized the concept of the two-way player. Hailing from Oshu, Japan, an 18-year-old Ohtani played in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) organization with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters starting in 2013 and continuing through 2017. His performance, both at the plate and on the mound, was enough to catch the eyes of MLB scouts, and by late 2017, multiple MLB teams pursued the international star. The real question was, would his success in Japan translate to the Major League diamond? Batters like Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui were able to make the transition, while pitchers such as Daisuke Matsuzaka, Yu Darvish, and Masahiro Tanaka did the same. Yet, would trying to make the jump to MLB in

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