Sports Illustrated - USA (2020 - Spring)

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

22

HOKKAIDO IS

home to the Fighters and the Saka-

moto Ryo ̄ma Memorial Museum. It

is a measure of Ryo ̄ma’s enormous

importance to modern Japanese

history that Hokkaido honors the

samurai though he never set foot in

the prefecture.

The Fighters’ drafting and signing

of Ohtani in ’12 was a media sensa-

tion, especially because he had said

out at 101.1 mph, with an average

four-seamer velocity of 96.7. Only

Noah Syndergaard, Luis Severino

and Nathan Eovaldi threw harder

on average among starting pitchers.

As hard as Ohtani throws, the de-

ception of his split-finger fastball is

even more impressive. He threw 192

splitters in ’18. Like blindfolded chil-

dren swinging at a birthday piñata,

batters missed more than half the

time they swung at the darn thing

(53 of 95 attempts) and turned just

two into hits.

But all that velocity caught up with

Ohtani. After a start on June 6, he

complained of a sore elbow. Doctors

diagnosed a sprain and prescribed

rest. He returned on Sept. 2 for a start

against the Astros. His fastball hit

99 mph early in the game, but then

dropped to as low as 92. The ulnar col-

lateral ligament in his elbow was shot,

a possibility the Angels feared when

they signed him, based on his medi-

cal exam and a platelet-rich plasma

procedure he underwent at the time.

While rehabbing his elbow last sea-

son, Ohtani played only as the DH.

Even so, in spring training his knee

began to ache. Ohtani was born with

a condition occurring in 2% of the

population called bipartite patella, in

which two bones in his left kneecap

remained separate and didn’t fuse. He

played through the pain, which grew

worse as he ramped up his throwing

program. Ohtani hit .180 over 17 games

before L.A. finally shut him down.

The knee surgery stalled his

elbow rehab by six weeks, pushing

his mound return to mid-May. (The

Angels also consider the late start

a wise governor on his innings, as

he has averaged only 99 per year as

a professional.)

Before he blew out his elbow, Ohtani

strove to throw a pitch 170 km/h,

which at 105.6 mph would be the fast-

est pitch in history. (Aroldis Chapman

set the record, 105.1 mph, in 2010.)

Ohtani still wants to reach that num-

ber. “Hopefully,” he says, “my ligament

holds up this time to do it.”

he would sign with an MLB team out

of high school. The Fighters won him

over, in part with a 30-page presenta-

tion spelling out the failures of Japa-

nese athletes, from tennis players

to skiers, who went abroad at such

a young age. Or it might have been

because of their manager’s undergar-

ments: Hideki Kuriyama wore lucky

purple underwear to one meeting

with Ohtani in homage to the main

Ohtani hits the ball harder than Bryce

Harper, runs to first faster than Trea Turner

and throws harder than Gerrit Cole. “He is a

generational talent,” says a rival GM.