From the prime minister to people in the street, Japan yesterday celebrated Shohei Ohtani winning one of US baseball’s top awards with joy, banners and newspaper extras filled with pride at the achievement of one of their own.
Ohtani, 27, with the Los Angeles Angels, won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the MLB’s American League, becoming only the second Japanese player to do so after Ichiro Suzuki, then with the Seattle Mariners, in 2001.
“I’m proud. He worked hard and showed Japanese presence,” said Minoru Tanaka, 68 and a part-time worker.
Photo: Reuters
Others were even more enthusiastic.
“I’m simply happy, I think it’s amazing,” said office worker Chihiro Nakamura, 36. “I want to keep cheering him on.”
Newspapers handed out extras and the Tokyo Tower was illuminated in the Angels’ colors with a congratulatory message at exactly 17:17, or 5:17pm, to match Ohtani’s jersey number.
Photo: AP
City hall workers in Ohtani’s hometown of Oshu, Iwate Prefecture,, gathered in Angels jerseys, cheering and clapping. Later, banners proclaiming the win were hung from Oshu City Hall.
Even Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida joined, telling reporters: “It’s an extraordinary accomplishment and as a Japanese citizen, I feel very proud.”
Ohtani’s popularity stems from his athletic ability and his character, which combines quiet strength and the humbleness Japan respects most in its heroes, said Hirotaka Matsuoka, a sports marketing professor at Tokyo’s Waseda University.
“Ohtani is earnest and humble, so even if he doesn’t say anything, he’s appealing — and he appeals to men, women, young and old,” Matsuoka said.
Although Suzuki was popular, Ohtani goes one better, said Robert Whiting, the author of several books on Japanese baseball.
“He gives Japan a certain status in MLB it has never had before,” he said in remarks made to reporters before the award announcement. “Some people are calling him the best baseball player they’ve ever seen.”
Shares in sporting goods firm Asics rose, while Zett Corp, a little-known sports company whose share price soared in July when Ohtani played in the All-Star game, fell after an initial spike just after the news came out.
Although baseball has lost ground to soccer in Japan in the past few years, Ohtani’s MVP is likely to inspire more to play the game — and more to watch, giving Japanese professional baseball a boost, Matsuoka said.
“After all, who knows when you might be able to see the next Ohtani in a game right here?” he said.
Ohtani’s two-way season was so incredible, MVP voters filled out the top of their ballots only one way.
He was a unanimous winner of the award on Thursday in the US for a hitting and pitching display not seen since Babe Ruth.
Bryce Harper earned the National League honor for the second time.
Ohtani received all 30 first-place votes and 420 points in balloting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
“American fans, the USA baseball, is more accepting and welcoming to the whole two-way idea compared to when I first started in Japan, so it made the transition a lot easier for me,” Ohtani said through translator Ippei Mizuhara. “I’m very thankful for that.”
Ohtani batted .257 with 46 homers, 100 RBIs and a .965 OPS as the Los Angeles Angels’ full-time designated hitter, and went 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA in 23 pitching starts with 156 strikeouts and 44 walks in 130-1/3 innings.
Additional reporting by AP
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds said it felt like an “impossible dream” when fellow Hollywood A-lister Rob McElhenney first floated the idea of buying soccer club Wrexham, along with a pitch for a documentary. The ultimate goal was reaching the Premier League. Four years after they purchased the north Wales outfit, Wrexham are one league away from achieving their lofty goal after a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday saw them promoted for a record third consecutive time. “We were standing there doing a press conference four years ago, and said our goal is to make it to the Premier League, and
RSS