Stop admiring them: Tweet that spurred Japan to turn on style and run over fancied USA baseball team

Stop admiring them: Tweet that spurred Japan to turn on style and run over fancied USA baseball team

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For the longest time, even Shohei Ohtani’s teammates looked past him in favour of the North American stars of Major League Baseball. They know now that they only need look to the guy in their own dressing room to see the most complete player in all of baseball.

Still, it may have taken a speech just before the World Baseball Classic final in Miami between Japan and the United States, tweeted by the Japanese team, to help tilt the balance.

“Let’s stop admiring them,” Ohtani said referring to his teammate’s reverence for the heroes of MLB. “If you admire them, you can’t surpass them.”

In the nine innings of baseball that followed, Ohtani’s teammates surpassed the Americans, winning 3-2 after Ohtani struck out perhaps the second best player, Los Angeles Angels teammate, Mike Trout, to end the game.

The 28-year old does what modern players in Major League Baseball don’t. He pitches the ball when his team is on the defensive side of an inning and he hits when his team is on the offensive side.

In the top tier of baseball, pitching perhaps 100 times in a game if things go well, is left to specialists. They rest their precious arms when their teammates are up to bat.

Ohtani isn’t alone amongst pitchers that do take to bat, but few in the history of the sport have ever boasted the prowess of the Japanese marksman.

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