It may seem from my last post, The MVP Case For Marcell Ozuna, that I was anti- Shohei Ohtani. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I was just arguing for someone else to win this year’s NL MVP award based solely on the word that lies in the middle of baseball’s biggest acronym – valuable. It is obvious from his on-field play, that Ohtani is the best player in baseball – at least in the National League, Aaron Judge might have something to say otherwise – but I just believe that the Dodgers can win without him. Proof: they have.

As I mentioned in the last piece though, it might have been Ohtani’s innate uniqueness that worked against him in the race. Nikola Jokic had won back-to-back NBA MVPs in 2021 and 2022 because he was doing things on a nightly basis that we’d never seen from someone in his position. But with 2023 came the inevitable. Jokic had set the bar so high for himself that having another great season wouldn’t be enough for a third consecutive MVP nod. Unfair? Maybe, but that was the situation Jokic found himself in – hindered by voter fatigue surrounding his own greatness. Then came 2024, and having lost the hardward to Joel Embiid, Jokic did what he does and took the honor back in 2024. Proving, I suppose, that, while voter fatigue clearly played a factor the year before, voters were reminded that the gap between Jokic and Embiid exists.

But, despite my opening, this is not an MVP sequel piece. This is an appreciation of the man who makes it necessary for people like me to advocate for other players to even have a chance during award season: Shohei Ohtani.

The things that Shohei Ohtani has accomplished in nearly seven MLB seasons is nothing short of remarkable. A .278 average and 217 home runs, not to mention a 3.01 ERA on the mound. It’s one thing that Shohei is a two-way player, but the fact that he excels at both individually is mind-boggling. The only comparable player we have is Babe Ruth, and 100 years after the Bambino, we really only talk about his hitting. This isn’t to say that Ruth wasn’t a good pitcher. He was the American League ERA leader in 1916, but it’s the 714 career home runs and the calling of his shot in the 1932 World Series that gets remembered first.

Ohtani has already tallied two Silver Sluggers, two home run titles, and two triples titles, as well as two league MVP Awards, and he’s well on his way to a third in 2024 – especially if Marcell Ozuna’s case is hampered by the offensively anemic Braves missing out on the postseason.

Going back to the NBA and Jokic for just a minute, one of the things that worked against Jokic in the 2023 NBA MVP race was the fact that he would have to do something else the league had never seen in order to pull off the three-peat. The advantage that Ohtani has in that category is the fact that he’s zeroing in on becoming Major League Baseball’s first ever member of the 50-50 club. That would almost certainly lock up the MVP trifecta. Could he make it four in a row? We’re getting ahead of ourselves, but of course he can! If we continue with the criteria of venturing into uncharted statistical territory, once Ohtani returns to the mound in 2025, he could become the first home run champion to ever win the Cy Young Award. Okay, maybe that’s splitting hairs given the rarity of the two-way player, but it’s something the great Babe Ruth has never done, since the award was introduced in 1956.

Yes, this was simply a Shohei Ohtani appreciation post, because I wanted to make sure that he had a permanent place on this blog, given that the last time I regularly posted on here, Ohtani was a rookie. Watching Ohtani play reminds me of one thing. I spent almost all of Tom Brady’s career despising him, because his spot on the New England Patriots made him a heated rival of my childhood idol, Peyton Manning and the Colts. It wasn’t until I was an adult, and Tom went down to Tampa that I took a step back and said, “It’s okay to admit that I’m watching the greatest to ever do it while he’s still doing it.” As a baseball fan, I don’t want that to happen with Ohtani.

I’m reminded of the series finale of The Office when the Andy Bernard uttered the words: “I wish there was a way to know that you were in the good ol’ days before you’ve actually left them.” Those are pretty wise words for life in general, but I urge baseball fans to heed those words while Ohtani is still gracing the diamond. These are the good ol’ days. This is special; Ohtani is special – don’t let him pass you by.