Tag Archives: Hideki Kuriyama

The real super power of Shohei Ohtani

For the nth time in his career, Shohei Ohtani showed what a remarkable individual he is, not because of his ability to both pitch and hit at an elite level or even his superb combination of power and speed on offense, but because of his ability to stay focused on the present.

He already has arguably the most extraordinary career in baseball history, and put an exclamation point on his current exceptional season with a singular performance, displaying a talent rarely talked about – his mental discipline.

On Thursday, Ohtani became the first player to reach 50 home runs and 50 steals in Major League Baseball with a 6-for-6, three-homer, two-steal, 10-RBI game.

Most remarkable, however, is that Ohtani has reached such milestones after setting course on a journey that few people in the professional baseball world thought was possible, and which some vocally opposed.

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Kuroda, Tanishige in Hall of Fame

On Thursday, pitcher Hiroki Kuroda and catcher Motonobu Tanishige were inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame on the Player’s Division ballot voted on by eligible members of the media.

I analyzed the career value and peak value of this year’s candidates in December, when I worked out my own ballot. Kuroda was easily the most qualified pitcher among those on the ballot, and his career fits in nicely with previous pitchers voted into the Hall of Fame.

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