Who is Shohei Ohtani?
A: Shohei is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher, designated hitter and
outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels.
He previously played for whom?
A: The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball's (NPB)
Pacific League.
Ohtani was the first pick of the Fighters in what?
A: The 2012 draft.
He played in NPB for the Fighters from 2013 through
2017 as a what?
A: A pitcher and an outfielder.
On October 16, 2016 Ohtani recorded the fastest pitch
in NPB history at what speed?
A: 165 kilometres per hour (102.5 mph).
The record was broken by Thyago Vieira five years
later, but he still what?
A: Holds the Japanese record.
The Fighters posted Ohtani to MLB after the 2017 season, and he signed with whom?
A: The Angels.
He won what awards?
A: The 2018 American League (AL) Rookie of the Year Award and the 2021 AL
Most Valuable Player Award.
Ohtani's 2021 season was formally recognized as what?
A: "Historically significant" and a "major impact on the sport" by MLB
Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Why?
A: He became the first two-way player in the history of MLB with 10+ home
runs and 20+ stolen bases as a hitter and 100+ strikeouts and 10+ pitching
appearances as a pitcher in the same season while also holding at least a
share of the major league lead in home runs in fourteen starts.
He was also the first player in MLB history to be an
All-Star as what?
A: Both a pitcher and a hitter.
Ohtani was born to whom?
A: Kayoko and Toru Otani in Ōshū, Iwate, Japan, on July 5, 1994.
His mother, Kayoko, was a what?
A: A national-level badminton player in high school.
His father worked where?
A: At a local automobile manufacturing plant and he was an amateur baseball player who played in the Japanese Industrial League.
The youngest of three children, he has one older
sister, Yuka, and one older brother Ryuta, who is also a what?
A: An amateur baseball player in the Japanese Industrial League.
In Japan, Ohtani was known as what?
A: A kid who lives, eats and breathes baseball.
Coached by his father, he displayed what at an early
age?
A: An aptitude for the game.
When did he begin playing baseball?
A: In his second year of elementary school.
As a seventh-grader, Ohtani recorded all but one of 18
outs in a what?
A: A six-inning regional championship game.
Ohtani's high school baseball coach, Hiroshi Sasaki,
said what?
A: That he was a fast swimmer who "could have made the Olympics."
Under Sasaki's guidance, Hanamaki Higashi's players
lived where?
A: On campus, returning home for only six days a year.
Sasaki would assign toilet cleaning chores to Ohtani,
to teach him what?
A: Humility.
Ohtani threw a 160 km/h (99 mph) fastball as a what?
A: An 18-year-old high school pitcher.
He threw the pitch in what?
A: The Japanese national high school baseball championship tournament.
In the 2012 18U Baseball World Championship, Ohtani had
a 0–1 win–loss record with what?
A: 16 strikeouts, eight walks, five hits, five runs, and a 4.35 earned run
average (ERA) in 10+1⁄3 innings pitched.
Ohtani expressed a desire to move directly to the major
leagues after high school and received interest from numerous teams
including whom?
A: The Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Los Angeles
Dodgers.
On October 21, 2012, he announced that he would pursue
a career in what?
A: Major League Baseball rather than turn professional in Japan.
The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters decided to draft him,
anyway, knowing what?
A: That there was a high likelihood he would not play for them.
After an exclusive negotiating window between him and the Fighters, Ohtani announced that he would sign with the Fighters and spend some years in Japan before a possible MLB move.
Hokkaido said it would allow Ohtani to serve as what?
A: As a pitcher and position player; the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had become Ohtani's top-choice MLB team, were not prepared to let him play both ways.
Ohtani made his debut at age 18 in the Fighters'
season-opening game on March 29, 2013, playing as a what?
A: A right fielder.
He was selected for a Pacific League roster spot for
what?
A: The 2013 All-Star Game.