With highlights Shohei Ohtani's best games on the mound and at bat for
the Los Angeles Angels from each month of his rookie season--as well as
anecdotes of his life in America--this is one book that every fan of
Major League Baseball will want.
Rarely does anyone use the term "two-way" in regard to a baseball
player. Yet the Los Angeles Angels' Shohei Ohtani, at the young age of
twenty-three, has become the epitome of the term, drawing comparisons to
Babe Ruth by baseball pundits everywhere.
After being drafted by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Japan
Pacific League with the number-one pick in 2012, the eighteen-year-old
Ohtani struggled with the bat during his rookie season. However, he had
a breakout year in 2014, posting a 2.61 ERA in 24 starts and 179
strikeouts (as well as 10 home runs). By 2017, all thirty Major League
Baseball teams had heard about the Japanese phenom and expressed
interest in signing him. Ultimately, the Angels offered him the
opportunity to compete as a two-way player and the chance to accomplish
his professional goals.
After a quiet spring training, Ohtani broke out in the first two weeks
of the 2018 regular season, becoming just the 14th pitcher in
major-league history to strike out 12 batters in one of his first two
starts. He also homered in three consecutive games during that stretch.
Shohei Ohtani: The Amazing Story of Baseball's Two-Way Japanese
Superstar tells the story of the player from rural Japan who became a
two-way star not seen in America since Babe Ruth.
