24
“OK. Pitcher: 12 starts, 5–4 with a
3.89 ERA.”
He laughs. “If I had a 3.89 ERA
with our offense, I’d probably win
more than five games,” he says. “I
would definitely not take that. We’ve
got Rendon now.”BABE RUTH WAS
playing golf in Los Angeles before the
1920 season when somebody asked
him whether he intended to pitch.
“Not if I can help it,” the big guy
replied. “I think my pitching days are
over. I would rather go after them in
the outfield.”Ohtani, as clubs do for all players,
but his take longer. The Angels also
track not just his games played but
also the rigor of each one, down to
how many times he dove back into
first on pickoff attempts.
They also have a person dedicated
to monitoring Ohtani’s energy level,
sleep, soreness and nutrition and
will ask him nearly every day about
his assessment of those patterns. If
any of the monitors indicate a 5%
or greater deviation from Ohtani’s
baseline, the Angels issue an internal
“yellow light” on him. It’s the sig-
nal for everyone involved—trainers,For all of Ruth’s two-way legend,
he kept up both disciplines regularly
over a span of just 202 games: from
May 1918 through the following July,
when he was 24. (He pitched only
three times over the final 51 games
that year.)
Ohtani has been an active two-way
player in the big leagues for just a
63-game span in 2018, during which
he hit or pitched in 43 of them before
his elbow gave out.
Maintaining his health through a
season requires particular discipline.
Los Angeles regularly administers
strength and f lexibility tests onTHE AGING CURVE
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RT
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4
20 FOR THE ’20S
SHOHEI OHTANI