You didn't know the NFL's best star? Ohtani says 'Baseball fool' This is the source of the out-of-the-field home run strength
Jul 23, 2024
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That's Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He signed a 10-year, $450 million extension in July 2020. Until Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers in December last year, Mahomeser was the highest-paid player in North American professional sports history. Mahomes entered Kansas City in 2017 and is currently the best NFL star to win two-time MVP and three-time Super Bowl MVP and championship.
Ohtani, who stepped on U.S. soil when he joined the Los Angeles Angels in 2018, said he did not know who Mahomes was during his six-year run until last year. In other words, when he moved to the Dodgers last winter, he heard that Mahomes is the most famous and expensive player in the NFL. Usually, sports players are interested in the top star player to some extent even if the sport is different, but Ohtani was not.
Ken Rosenthal, a reporter for The Athletic, told this anecdote in an article titled `The Inclusive Relationships That Protected Shohei Ohtani-Until They Didn't' on the 22nd (Korean time).
According to the article, Ohtani was not interested in other sports during his time with the Angels. An official familiar with Ohtani said in the article, "He didn't even know who Patrick Mahomes was" he said.
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Mizuhara, who has been linked to Otina since the days of the Nippon-Ham Fighters, was able to sneak about $17 million from Otani's bank account to pay off his gambling debt because Otani was not interested in anything other than baseball.
Mizuhara pleaded guilty in June to two counts of tax evasion and falsification of tax returns.
Rosenthal said, `Otani created a vacuum by establishing an exclusive and dynamic relationship with Mizuhara and agent CAA Nez Valero that no one else could be close to him.' According to an Angels official, Ohtani's world was all about baseball, and Valero's world was all about Ohtani. Mizuhara was the only one of the three who was fluent in English and Japanese to fill Ohtani's communication gap, taking on broader responsibilities beyond the interpreter's own work, he said.
Former Angels manager Joe Maddon told Rosenthal that Otani lacked social life. Nothing else happened to him as he went back and forth from the ballpark to the accommodation." In other words, while Maddon was at the helm of the Angels from 2020 to early June 2022, he had never heard or seen what areas Ohtani was interested in other than baseball.
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In response to Ohtani's tendency, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, `Otani is in full swing in his first season with us, and he's starting to be independent and open-minded.' In other words, they solve their problems on their own and communicate with the people around them.
Ohtani hit a 473-foot out-of-the-field home run against the Boston Red Sox at Dodger Stadium on the 22nd, saying, `The home run I wanted.'It will create more opportunities to hit home runs out of Just Stadium. I certainly expected one to come out," he said with a big smile. It is evaluated that the interview content has become brighter, more positive, and more expressive than the Angels.
I think the driving force behind Ohtani's best performance in pitching and hitting 30 home runs for four consecutive years after entering the Major League is the stupidly focusing only on baseball.
jhno@sportschosun.com
