The last time I watched a historic, never-before-done moment in MLB history, was when Mark McGuire broke the league’s season home run record. Everyone learned soon afterward that McGuire was juiced like an overripe orange and that feat-of-wonder was forever tainted. Irony stepped in and that record was broken by… uber-juicer Barry Bonds.
Bonds has denied that he was also juiced. Reach your own conclusions. I have.
On Thursday, I returned home and thought that, in the offhand chance that Ohtani would have a good game, he might become the only man in the 50/50 club. So, I turned on my TV and watched the game. And, I watched history.
Shohei Ohtani became the first player in baseball history to reach the 50/50 club on Thursday, and he did so in dominant fashion — with three home runs and two stolen bases in a six-hit game that led the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 20-4, postseason-clinching victory.
Not long ago, Ohtani made history by being the first member of the 40/40 club. Becca Lower wrote about Ohtani and how special he is with his feats of wonder and humility. After he reached that unreachable height, why not fly into the ionosphere with a try for a 50/50 season?
There are other “things” that made this special. While I watched I was texting life-long friends and fellow Dodger fans. We all were marveling at Ohtani. I was watching the Dodgers broadcast so I got to listen to the play-by-play of Joe Davis and Orel Hershiser. They are consummate professionals and fans of baseball. They knew they were watching and reporting history. They mentioned that even pro baseball players are in awe of Ohtani. ESPN wrote:
Ohtani’s three homers, six hits and 10 RBIs all set career highs. The 10 RBIs set a Dodgers record. He became the first player with three home runs and two stolen bases in a game since at least 1900 and the first player since RBIs became official in 1920 with 10 RBIs and five extra-base hits in a game. Ohtani also became the second player since at least 1901 with six hits in a game, including five for extra bases, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Ohtani isn’t just a superhuman athlete, he might be the nicest, most respectful man playing professional sports. I watched his reaction as he re-entered the dugout after he slugged his 50th. He was happy, of course, but he showed a boy-like pleasure and humility. He was asked to take a curtain call but didn’t think of that until his coaches and teammates told him to take a bow. He is humble and superhuman at the same time. When he hit his 51st, he was almost embarrassed. I thought of pro-sport comparisons, and I couldn’t come up with any.
No one in professional baseball, no one in professional sports can compare to Shohei Ohtani. It is men like Ohtani that children can look up to. He is a terrific athlete and a better human being. He is humble and gracious. He respects umpires and thanks opposing players if players say hi to him. He is apologetic if he hits a foul ball into the crowd – worried that he might have hurt someone.
After he hit 50 homers (he already had 50 steals), he was told to strip because everything he had on, was being cataloged for Cooperstown. There are plenty of great baseball players who were not so good at being men. Lots of drunks and lots of athletes got full of themselves and were, or turned into terrible people. Maybe they were always terrible people.
Ohtani isn’t Babe Ruth. He isn’t Barry Bonds. He’s better than both of them. Not because he’s done something neither of them could do, but because of what he has done combined with who he is as a person. Ohtani is a once-in-a-lifetime talent and a once-in-a-century man.
I am a fan of baseball. I am a bigger fan of Shohei Ohtani. “We will never see his like again” is overused. But not in this case.
And by the way, he didn’t even pitch this season.
Superhuman. Superman
