Shohei Ohtani Unleashed

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Seventy-two years after his death, Babe Ruth, again, is having a moment. So, too, are Ted Radcliffe, Harvey Haddix, Sudden Sam McDowell, Bullet Joe Rogan, Leon Day and many others.

These baseball relics are rushing past like freeway signs while going 99 miles per hour — which is how fast Shohei Ohtani’s world-class fastball topped out in his seven-inning, 10-strikeout start in Houston on Tuesday. Or maybe 119 m.p.h. — the speed off the bat of Ohtani’s two-run double on April 12, which was the second-hardest hit ball in the majors this season.

Both marks are elite in a spring of wonderful possibilities as this extraordinary, two-way throwback to flannel uniforms and sepia-toned images flourishes just as the Los Angeles Angels hoped he would when they signed him as a free agent from Japan before the 2018 season.

“Obviously, the last two years, I’ve been hurt,” Ohtani, who throws right-handed and bats left-handed, said in a videoconference, referencing his 2018 Tommy John surgery, 2019 left knee surgery and 2020 forearm strain. “My first year, I wasn’t able to pitch the second half of the season.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/sports/baseball/shohei-ohtani-unleashed.html