Photo via Mogami Kariya on Flickr
We’re staring down the barrel of a potential sports tragedy. As you’ve surely heard by now, Shohei Ohtani has a partially torn UCL and won’t pitch for the rest of the 2023 season.
Ohtani was little over a month away from netting the largest contract in MLB history, and he still very well might. Yet there are few more pressing questions than what it would mean to lose one wing of the greatest superhero to ever grace the game.
More than his talent alone, Ohtani has become a global ambassador of the great pastime. He holds the deep nostalgia of Babe Ruth in one hand, and the shimmering future of two-way stardom in the other. He is humble, dedicated, and kind. We should hope to see those virtues returned to him from us as fans and from his fellow members of the Major League Baseball brotherhood.
While it is of little empirical consequence how the baseball community supports and uplifts Ohtani, it does provide an interesting case study. Does Major League Baseball hold a standard of kindness unlike any other team sport? Do players view each other as brothers first rather than rivals or enemies? Does it matter?
I think it does. Look across the league tonight. You will see a first baseman cracking jokes with the hitter who just got on. You’ll see a shortstop messing with the player who just stole second base. The childlike wonderment of MLB is one of its greatest strengths.
We take a look in depth at what goodness means to the sport.
The Reciprocity of Recognition and Respect
Ask any MLB player, and they will tell you how much their teammates respect means to them. Ask any MLB player, and they will talk at great lengths about their teammates strengths, what they mean to the team, what makes them special.
People who grind in the minor leagues for years, bonding over half-day bus rides, the exhaustion of travel and the perpetual pressure of proving oneself, forge deep friendships. Yet just as mercurial as their playing time is the team they end up playing for.
So much of the league has this story. Their closest comrades in the minors end up spread across divisions, sent to rival teams, DFA’d and recalled. Still, they hold onto their stories. They remember their grit and determination to fight for a career that lasts fewer than 6 years on average.
That recognition matters, and baseball affords the chance to show it more than any other.
Insights from MLB Mic’d Up Sessions
In April, Manny Machado had a Mic’d Up session amid a series against the Atlanta Braves. With Austin Riley at the plate, Machado spoke of his hitting talent. His compliments prompted Karl Ravech to pose, “you have a lot of respect for Austin Riley, don’t you?”
Machado in His Own Words
“Oh yeah, man,” said Machado, “I saw him his first year, and seeing how he’s turned into . . . a superstar in his game . . . even defensively he’s turning into a gold glover.” It is striking the immediacy with which Manny spoke positively of his opponent. He was excited to talk about young talent in the game. That’s important.
After Riley grounded into a double play, Machado met Ronald Acuna at third base. An inning before, Acuna had nearly robbed Machado of an extra-base hit. “Gotta be careful with this guy right here,” he joked about Acuna. When asked if he thought Acuna would make the play on his fly ball, he said “Of course I thought this guy was gonna catch it. He’s a stud out there.” With a hand on Ronald’s shoulder, he said “I thought I had an easy base hit and he comes up there diving . . .” The two laughed, talking more before Ozzie Albies approached the dish.
Once more, in reference to Acuna, Machado said: “What he’s doing out there. . .speaking about Griffey [Jr.] earlier, this is the closest comparison we’ve got to a player like that.”
That’s high praise from a potential future hall of famer. What’s more, the joy with which he talked about it was infectious. It’s no wonder, I thought to myself, that kids want to grow up to play baseball. More than any other sport, it holds on to the sort of bonds one grows as a child amongst friends. Baseball never stops laughing, and never loses its luster.
The League’s Thoughts on Shohei Ohtani
Speaking of high praise, no one receives more of it than Shohei. Peers, fans and media alike regard him in an unprecedented way. We’ve compiled some of the quotes that exemplify his reputation.
- “He causes every single person, even if you’re just a casual fan, to stop and watch baseball. That’s what we need in the sport and he’s doing it.” — Freddie Freeman
- “He changed the rules. Anybody who changes the rules on anything has to be a great player. This guy, he can outrun a deer. He can throw a hundred miles an hour, hit a ball a mile.” — Dusty Baker
- “MVP with ease. He should win it every year. All of us at the highest level can’t believe our eyes. Be thankful you get to witness a real GOAT (greatest of all time)” — Marcus Stroman
- Another from Stro’: “Ohtani is a mythical legend in human form.”
- Another from Baker: “The guy is a tremendous athlete and what impresses me the most about him is how mannerable he is to the opposition. He greets the umpire, he greets the hitter . . . I’m just impressed with him as a player and as a person as well.”
Beyond his building legend amongst the baseball world, he has drawn extensive attention from other athletes like JJ Watt and Kevin Durant as well as news anchors like Chris Hayes, who said of an Ohtani homerun: “This is like burying a 3 from 35 feet. Just makes you laugh out loud.”
I’ll stop here for brevity’s sake, but the point I’d like to make is this: the non-stop stream of exaltation is still insufficient to capture what Shohei Ohtani means to people, and yet he remains grounded the honorable qualities that make him so lovable.
Kindness Makes Baseball a Global Phenomenon
Recently, this photo sent the MLB world into a tizzy:
The image was so powerful because baseball has notoriously had a problem equalizing the mainstream popularity of the NFL and NBA. Athletes like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant transcended borders. Seldom (if ever) does an MLB player reach such heights.
Enter Shohei Ohtani.
Top 9, World Baseball Classic, title game. As if the totality of suspense in the literary canon had manifested into one moment, Ohtani finds himself facing his teammate (and profound generation talent) Mike Trout with two outs. With Japanese and American flags like a turning ocean behind them, the count runs full, and Ohtani fires a pitch.
You know the rest. You know how people around the world rejoiced or cried. How Trea Turner became a veritable American icon, how Chinese Taipei brought a crowd straight out of a movie, how Japanese fans passed a Shohei Ohtani homerun ball around the entire crowd, no one among them claiming it for themselves.
For that brief time we saw the potential of baseball as a global phenomenon. And now, as we all marvel at the 2023 Little League World Series, it’s clear that America’s pastime has evolved. No longer the erstwhile, slow-paced little brother of major sports, it’s become a full fledged expression of joy, athleticism and unity.
Choose Baseball: Rivalries and Respect
This week, Zack Short and Ian Happ faced each other for the first time. The two friends balanced competitive fire and true friendship. Kindness never left the picture. Short was asked about Christopher Morel:
He’s a great human being. Every time I saw him, it was like the first time since seeing him in [the Minor Leagues]. Smile ear to ear. Man, this guy is such a good person. I got traded in 2020 [to the Tigers] . . . there are still so many guys there. Guys you grind with, guys that’ve helped you get better along the road. It’s crazy what a world baseball is.”
Zack Short, The Compound Podcast
Though I hope not to wax poetic excessively, baseball is perhaps the one sport that thrives on the romantic connections we make as fans.
Earlier, I talked about how baseball players’ goodness extends more to the opposition than any other sport’s athletes. Is this a question of American culture? It isn’t my place to say, and yet there are some important things to consider with regard to the sport’s outlook on rivalries.
Marketing for MLB rivalries doesn’t hinge wholly on antagonism as it does in the UFC, for instance. Of course bad blood still arises, brawls happen, bad words are said, but what defines a rivalry in baseball is the history of respect between two teams. Yes, we think of Pedro Martinez throwing Don Zimmer to the ground. Yet more often we think of David Ortiz hitting a grand slam, Dave Roberts stealing second base, Curt Schilling’s bloody sock. Baseball is about the human spirit.
Why We Choose Baseball
I certainly don’t mean to say other sports don’t share such magic. Who can forget Jordan’s flu game, or Kobe dropping 60 points in his career finale? It will never be true that baseball holds the ultimate potential for greatness or historical value. Instead, it is the game that leaves the most room for connection, for reflection, for understanding.
That’s why when great players go down with injuries, the sport doesn’t let their shine fade. That’s why, as Shohei Ohtani keeps hitting, we will marvel at his perseverance more than we will question his future. That’s why when he meets Elly De La Cruz on the base path, the two will laugh and get to know each other more and more. That’s why after the game ends the manager will talk about the brilliance of opposing players, too. When we praise the totality of the league, it shows the world how special Major League Baseball really is.
We choose baseball because it reminds us of our childhood. We choose baseball because we use it to build families. We choose baseball because every day we see something we may never see again.
