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“First throw, full move. It is,” Ohtani said with a smile, six words that were remarkable because of what he did next: a first pitch, a full swing, a base hit up the middle — a strikeout like the one enshrined in the legend of the 20th century’s two-way star, Babe Ruth.
Ohtani is so good, so different and so legendary that people in his camp and in the industry wonder if he’s underrated. They wonder if his stint in baseball purgatory with the Angels is ruining the sport’s chances of having a mainstream star it hasn’t had in decades at a time they think it needs one the most.
As Major League Baseball returns from the All-Star break, it does so in a prolonged state of anxiety — about what it once was and what it should be, what it isn’t now and what it should become. Holding the first night of the draft in downtown Los Angeles was an attempt to reflect the scale of the NBA and NFL versions. New rules are coming, such as a pitch clock. Old, unwritten rules, such as those that discourage abundance on the field, are slowly disappearing from the insidious collective consciousness.
Attendance is down. Television ratings for the All-Star Game were historically low, although Sports Media Watch reported that it was the most-watched televised event since the end of the NBA Finals. The baseball industry remains consumed by comparisons — to the NFL, to the NBA and, more unfavorably, to the NHL — even as it drives all competitors into frenzied self-deprecation. Baseball hasn’t had a LeBron James or a Michael Jordan, at least not in this century. There was no Tom Brady. (Well, technically, it briefly did that Tom Brady, Montreal Expos draft pick.) Mike Trout and Aaron Judge are stars in the baseball world, but not necessarily staples of the cultural consciousness.
Yet as the sport continues its anxious, self-imposed search for a star big enough to bring it back into the mainstream cultural zeitgeist, it may be missing the fact that it has one. Superstardom and mainstream relevance are difficult things to measure, but Ohtani seems to be climbing in both.
His appeal can be measured in cameras – the 28-year-old is surrounded by them at every turn. Viewership for MLB games on Japan’s NHK BS1 television network has increased 422 percent since Ohtani came to the United States, according to MLB figures.
As each star met the media Monday, Washington Nationals outfielder Juan Soto, whose uncertain future has made him the focus this week, was surrounded by three or four cameras and a semicircle of reporters two or three rows deep. Ohtani was surrounded by a semicircle cameras two or three rows deep—not to mention the reporters clinging to the fringes.
A snake of humanity and technology followed Ohtani around the field at Dodger Stadium, forcing some of the game’s other stars to dance on the sidelines. Many baseball players have been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated over the years. Ohtani landed the cover of GQ, the first baseball player to do so in over a decade. In April, he was on the cover of Time.
“I’m not sure if everyone in America loves me, but all I can do is give it my all, play and leave it all on the field and I hope the people watching get inspired,” Ohtani said to reporters this week.
Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, measures his client’s fame in the number of requests he can’t take, the number of interviews Ohtani doesn’t do and the number of promotional opportunities he politely declines.
He has been featured in a cryptocurrency ad and ads for Seiko watches, among other products. According to data compiled by Forbes, Ohtani’s approval rating tripled from 2021 to 2022; he now leads all major leaguers by nearly 300 percent at $22 million this year.
“We’ve had some big stars, but Shohei is different,” said Balello, whose agency has handled baseball phenoms as diverse as Yoenis Cespedes and Tim Tebow.
Ohtani arrived in 2018, just as many of Balelo’s most famous players were winding down their careers. So with clients unavailable and time on his hands, Balelo went all-in on Ohtani, taking a more hands-on approach than ever with a star whose relative profile demanded it.
Ballello hears that people don’t think they know Ohtani because he doesn’t do enough interviews with English-speaking journalists, that he might be bigger if he did. But that, Ballello said, was “by design.”
“He’s individual and extremely focused,” he said. “Sometimes he just doesn’t understand why he has to do interview after interview. He thinks, “This is me.” And I think that created a little bit of mystery, and five years from now we look up and think, ‘That’s kind of OK.'”
Wherever they go, Ohtani’s teammates answer questions for him, filling in gaps that he doesn’t like to fill himself. Baseball players don’t always enjoy being bombarded with questions about their teammates’ accomplishments, especially day in and day out. But Angels players and staff say no one minds.
“I’m not sick of it,” Trout said, “because I like Shohei. He’s a great guy.”
But what they do know is that to know the baseball side of Ohtani is to know Ohtani. He is obsessed with the game and his routine. He told Japan’s NHK that he thinks he makes more omelets than anyone in baseball because, when he’s not eating at the team facility, he goes home and cooks for himself, rests, then does it all over again — simple life consumed by preparing for a load that no other player can handle.
“A normal player has a little more freedom, a little more time to do different things. People want to do exclusive interviews or production days on his days off. But weekends are sacred,” Balello said. “He is so committed to his holiday and makes sure he sticks to his routine. Nothing prevents him from doing that. That is his priority.”
The easiest measure of Ohtani’s relative fame: the stats the routine has yielded. Since the start of the 2021 season, only Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Judge have more home runs. Only five starters who have thrown at least 200 innings in that span — Dylan Seaz, Corbin Burns, Carlos Rodon, Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer — have struck out more batters per nine innings. If he were just a hitter, Ohtani would be one of the best hitters in the game. If he were just a pitcher, Ohtani would be one of the best starters in the game.
He makes his Atlanta Braves start Friday night after allowing just three runs (two earned) and 20 hits in 39⅔ innings with 58 strikeouts over his last six outings. His ERA for the season is 2.38.
“We need to make sure his story is as big as he is,” said Karin Timpone, MLB’s chief marketing officer. “I think we’re kind of catching up to his greatness by sharing that story.”
Timpone talked about Ohtani’s fame in terms of clicks, among other things. MLB helped Ohtani launch his Instagram account two years ago, and he’s now the fourth-most followed star, according to MLB data. When MLB posts about Ohtani on Twitter, those posts are shared more than posts about any other player.
But the social media numbers also challenge the premise that Ohtani has reached unprecedented fame. He has 1.4 million followers on Instagram. James has more than 128 million. Brady has 12.4 million. Those numbers are evidence of the gap some in baseball want to close with football and basketball, a gap they say has widened in recent years.
Timpone has also worked for the NFL and said she sees the sports less as direct competitors and more as different genres of music.
“They are all excellent in their fields, but the atmosphere in each is different,” she said. “And as we know, people can enjoy different genres and different forms.”
Among the elite in the baseball genre, Ohtani is as much of a fascination as he’s ever been.
“I think maybe the casual fans don’t get it, but the deep fans do,” Boston Red Sox shortstop JD Martinez said. “He impresses all the players. We talk about him all the time at the club – we don’t know how he does it.”
At media All-Star Day, almost every player who was asked said they were more excited to see Ohtani play in person than anyone else. The players’ children insist on taking pictures with him. Opposing managers give him the nod before he takes his first hit.
And after this year’s All-Star pregame festivities, Ohtani was the one everyone wanted to see. Kershaw wanted to challenge Ohtani with a fastball. Ohtani was the one who stopped everyone, as so few players have done or will do again – a star like no other, still on the rise.
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