ON WITH THE SHO'
Neither scandal nor injury can distract Ohtani from greatness
YOU are the face of Major League Baseball, the $700 Million Man, and your close friend, your interpreter, betrays you, allegedly steals $16M from your bank account to pay off his gambling debts. An MLB investigation into The Scandal Heard ’Round the World, from here to Japan and back, thankfully absolves you. It does not cost you your reputation, or your growing legacy.
The Scandal Heard ’Round the World, from here to Japan and back, no longer costs you sleep.
“Now that I’ve been able to do that, I also came to realize that how I feel off the field mentally shouldn’t affect my abilities,” Shohei Ohtani said through his new interpreter before the Dodgers’ Memorial Day game against the Mets was rained out. “I have every confidence in my own ability that I could be able to still play without being affected by anything that happens off the field.”
His pressing concern these days is a bruised hamstring that he has been playing through after being plunked in the leg May 16 on a pickoff attempt at first base.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts over the weekend in Cincinnati guesstimated that Ohtani was at around 90 percent.
“It’s getting better day by day,” Ohtani said. “Today’s a lot better than yesterday.”
Ohtani doesn’t believe the hamstring has been a factor.
“Obviously the leg isn’t that great,” said Ohtani, who ended an 0-for-10 skid Saturday with an eyebrow-raising triple. “But I don’t personally think it’s affected the swing.”
It is sobering for opposing pitchers and managers to see what Ohtani (13 HR, 35 RBI, 1.024 OPS, .336 batting average — best in the majors heading into Monday) is doing at the plate as a DH unencumbered by having to pitch this season following a second elbow surgery. “Hard to say at this point,” he said when asked if not pitching is effecting him.
Ohtani, though, said he misses pitching.
“There’s a little bit of nervousness going into a game you start,” he said, “so in a sense I do miss that kind of atmosphere. But right now I’m just focused on just progressing every day.”
Dodgers sideline reporter and host Kirsten Watson was asking Ohtani and his latest interpreter the questions on Monday during the eight-minute scrum just below the Dodgers dugout. I asked her if she detected any signs of stress on Ohtani during and/or after The Scandal Heard ’Round to the World implicated disgraced interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.
“I think when he first addressed the media and gave us his statement after everything, you could see the emotions of it,” she said. “I mean, ultimately it’s like losing a friend as well. Obviously there were bigger things that happened, but that was a good friend of his, and I think that’s very challenging when you lose that trust. But I really do believe that was the only time we saw anything.
“What I really have learned from him is he’s very good at compartmentalizing things, everything from the media coverage that he has to kind of the fandom that surrounds him. Like he’s very good at, ‘I do my job, I’m here to do this, this is what I’m focusing on,’ and he can just separate everything. He’s been a superstar in the States for quite some time, he was a superstar in Japan for a long time. And so I think he learned that very early. And so even with him coming to the Dodgers, he already established having that ability to compartmentalize everything. ... It’s quite amazing how he can kinda handle just everything, the pressure, the excitement, the coverage. There’s no other athlete that I have been around, or worked with, or have the privilege of just covering that has the coverage that he has, especially like in U.S. sports.”
Los Angeles honored him on May 17 — his jersey number — with Shohei Ohtani Day. New York would not have scared him. Alas, Ohtani was a bridge too far for a Mets franchise that has viewed 2024 as a bridge year (currently over troubled waters) to 2025 and beyond.
Ohtani (10 years, $700M) agreeing to defer all but $2M of his $70M annual salary means that he will receive $68M million yearly from 2034 to 2043. No such deferred offer was made by Yankees GM Brian Cashman. Juan Soto (one year, $31M) was no consolation prize one month later.
The Dodgers bring a five-game losing streak into Tuesday’s twin bill during which they are 6-for-47 (.127) with runners in scoring position. Ohtani is 1-for-6.
“Right now it’s a little bit challenging in terms of the schedule, and the time changes, time differences, but what we can do is make sure that we just turn the page and focus on the next game,” Ohtani said.
And rest easy again as the $700M face of Major League Baseball.