Column: Sho-Time is back! Ohtani dramatically swings his way into history
Shohei Ohtani didn’t just make history, he wore it.
As he danced across home plate into the arms of bouncing, disbelieving Dodgers on Friday night, the magnitude of his accomplishment was evident in the condition of his uniform.
His shirt was soaked from being sprayed with water, marking his 40th home run.
His left pants leg contained large cakes of dirt, marking his 40th steal.
No other player in baseball history has ever looked quite like that.
No other player in baseball history joined the exclusive 40-40 club by reaching both the steals and home-run milestones in the same game, just five innings apart, with the finishing touch coming on a walk-off grand slam.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani became the sixth player in MLB history to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in a season by hitting a walk-off grand slam.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called it “storybook.”
Ohtani said he was “very ecstatic.”
I’m like, are you kidding me?
The Dodgers and their fans never have seen anyone like this guy, ever, ever, ever, 40 times ever, a fact that was proven again Friday in their dramatic 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in front of a roaring, stomping mob at Dodger Stadium.
“Shohei just never ceases to amaze,” Roberts told reporters afterward.
With every breath he takes. With every move he makes.
Ohtani stole second base in the fourth inning without a throw because he is so darn fast. He hit his walk-off grand slam over the right-center-field fence with two out in the ninth with an ordinary swipe because he is so darn strong.
The six-person 40-40 club rarely accepts new members because one must possess those completely separate skills of so darn fast and so darn strong. Babe Ruth never did it. Willie Mays never did it. Ty Cobb never did it. Hank Aaron never did it. Ted Williams never did it. No Dodger had ever done it.
Ohtani reached the milestone quicker than any one of his five 40-40 predecessors and, with a month’s worth of games remaining, he surely will end up surpassing them all with baseball’s first 45-45 season. Heck, the odds are 50-50 that he can reach even the seemingly insurmountable 50-50 plateau.
“That’s never been done, right?” Roberts said of 50-50. “So, I mean, I think with this guy, you know, over a month of baseball left, I think anything’s possible.”
Since Ohtani joined the Dodgers from the Angels last winter, the belief that anything is possible actually has been replaced by the idea that everything is possible.
“I think that he wants to be the greatest player to ever play this game,” Roberts said. “And when you start doing things like that, then you’re certainly staking your claim.”
The trajectory of the walk-off homer and its ensuing reaction perhaps were symbolic of Ohtani’s incredible, improbable journey into becoming even better than anyone thought.
The ball was hit so high, one could see fans literally holding their breath in disbelief that it actually would clear the fence. When it did sneak over the right-center-field wall, bouncing in and out of the glove of the Worst Fielding Fan Ever and dropping back down to the grass, the stadium erupted so loudly that as Ohtani rounded the bases, one could barely even hear Randy Newman.
When Ohtani arrived here with a $700-million contract and a starry history and a perfect smile, many folks wondered if he was too good to be true.
Now that everyone realizes he’s even better, the results have been deafening.
“He’s definitely known for the dramatics,” Roberts said.
Home runs by Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández and Miguel Rojas help Dodgers claw back from an early deficit before the Rays rally in the ninth and 10th.
He began his Dodgers career amid the uncertainty of offseason Tommy John elbow surgery. Yet in his first spring training game, he hit a home run.
He began the season caught in the swirl of a gambling scandal — in which he was absolved of all wrongdoing — that involved longtime interpreter Ippei Mizuhara stealing more than $16 million from him. Yet in the first month of the season Ohtani recorded a 1.017 on-base-plus-slugging percentage as if nothing ever happened.
He lately had struggled against left-handed pitching, dropping his August batting average to near .200, yet guess whom he homered against Friday night? Yep, a left-hander named Colin Poche, on his first pitch, as if Ohtani again had shrugged off all doubt and couldn’t wait to pounce.
“One of my top memorable moments,” Ohtani told the media through his interpreter, Will Ireton. “And I hope that I can do more and make more memorable moments.”
The Dodgers are counting on it, and Ohtani will be held to it. With every bit of greatness, more greatness will be expected.
First, there’s the postseason, in which Ohtani has yet to participate and the main reason he’s here and not still in Anaheim. He has said he wants these big moments, these championship moments, occasions like Friday night’s dramatic pennant-race moment, and in a few weeks he’ll have plenty of them, the pressure on him anew.
“You’re playing for a championship-caliber team, you’re playing for meaning every game in … August, September, going forward is meaningful,” Roberts said. “That’s something that he signed up for. And so you can expect there to be better performance. And that’s what’s happening.”
The Dodgers parting ways with Jason Heyward has been tough on the team because he is close friends with Freddie Freeman and well-liked in the clubhouse.
Then there are the moments not accessible this season but coming soon. You do remember he also pitches, right? He’s not pitching this year because his arm is recovering from the elbow surgery but, yes, think about it, he’s the best player in baseball and the Dodgers haven’t even seen his best!
“He’s just dangerous … anytime he puts that uniform on,” Roberts said.
In case folks were wondering, and they surely were, Friday night’s blast was not the biggest home run in the history of Dodger Stadium. That honor forever will remain with Kirk Gibson and the authors of several other memorable postseason dingers.
In fact, the home run wasn’t even the biggest in Dodger Stadium regular-season history. Don’t forget Steve Finley’s walk-off grand slam that gave the Dodgers the 2004 division title, or Charlie Culberson’s walk-off homer in 2016 that gave them the division crown in Vin Scully’s last home game.
Call this, instead, one of the most faith-stirring home runs in Dodger Stadium history, a grand slam that reached one milestone while increasing belief in another, an August blast filled with October heat, a preview of things to come?
During the postgame on-field interview with Spectrum SportsNet LA, one of the first words out of Ohtani’s mouth, through his interpreter, was, “World Series.”
As in, that’s what Shohei Ohtani is all about, that’s what the grand slam was all about, water on his jersey, dirt on his pants, a ring in his eye, and hope in a city’s heart.
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