World Baseball Classic: Shohei Ohtani gives his sport the moment it desperately needed
- A transcendent moment for Japan – as well as an entire sport – in victory over the US in the final of a memorable tournament
- Ohtani – arguably the greatest player of all time – leads Japan to success during a wildly passionate and historically thrilling two weeks
Festive passion is not the first thing that comes to mind when talking about Major League Baseball (MLB).
It’s a ponderous game, filled with interminable gaps in action that seem alien to a youthful culture weaned on constant stimuli. MLB is acutely aware of this and has made drastic changes this year to pick up the pace, most notably a strict pitch clock and the ending of defensive shifts that have kept scoring down.
But none of those changes arrived in time to instil the type of passion that the World Baseball Classic (WBC) just produced.
After preliminary games in Japan, Taiwan and the United States, the event landed front row centre in Miami this past week with the top players from Puerto Rico, the powerhouse Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela getting it on in the global capital of Hispanic diaspora.
The crowds were so wildly passionate that when defending champions the United States played Venezuela in the quarterfinals, the American players admitted it felt like a road game.
Down two runs very late in the game, US shortstop Trea Turner would hit a grand slam to save the day in what instantly became the loudest and most resonant at bat in American international baseball history.
Japan had just landed in Miami after a 16-hour flight and a quarter-final victory over Italy in Tokyo. Featuring superstar Shohei Ohtani, a freak of historic proportions who is not only one of the top hitters in the world but one of the top pitchers as well, the Japanese had no time for jet lag as Mexico were waiting to play them for a spot in the final against the US.
Initially sluggish, Japan rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie the game before being down one run in the bottom of the ninth. Of course, Ohtani would start things with a leadoff double and come around to score in an absolutely insane and boisterous comeback victory that sent Japan through.
It was simply one more riveting game and a natural successor to some of the greatest and most enthusiastic baseball ever played. How could you possibly transcend this kind of non-stop action? It would take something completely and totally surreal.
Ohtani is arguably the greatest baseball player of all time and his Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout, who is captain of the US team, is also one of the greatest players of all time. They are the type of generational talents that beg for the biggest stage, and this moment – with the world championship of baseball on the line – was made for them.
The first WBC was organised by MLB in 2006 after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to drop baseball from the Summer Games. MLB was hoping to be proactive and grow the game internationally, but the truth was the international community had already taken America’s former national pastime to stratospheric heights.
In Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, baseball is everything.
Over 65 million people in Japan – more than half the country – watched a preliminary game between their national team and Korea during this years’ WBC. In the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Venezuela, it’s also a national obsession. In fact, after seeing first-hand the insane passion from all these countries in Miami this week, it’s ironically in the US where baseball is fighting for relevance.
Regardless of the outcome of this tournament, the US has indisputably the best baseball talent in the world. However, the American team was not competing against their legacy – they were competing for eyeballs.
With college basketball’s annual March Madness dominating both the airwaves and the multibillion-dollar sports betting industry this time of year, the WBC was going to struggle for viewers.
Unlike the NBA and the NFL, with their plethora of instantly recognisable faces, baseball has done a poor job of penetrating popular culture. Their brightest stars have been largely anonymous to non-baseball fans.
Enter Ohtani and Trout, a couple of guys whose otherworldly talents should presumably make them impossible to ignore. Presumably.
It would all come down to a surreal and breathtaking confrontation that will define baseball for generations.
With Japan leading 3-2 in the ninth inning, Ohtani put his powerful bat down for a few minutes so he could pitch the last inning and close this thing out for his breathless country. And of course, the last hope for the US was none other than the sublime Trout. You really could not script this moment; all you could do was savour it.
Back and forth they went, Ohtani throwing lasers over 100 miles per hour and Trout hanging in. Finally, with the count full, Ohtani would throw a wicked breaking ball that a surprised Trout futilely lunged at.
Strike three, game over.
Japan were champions and Shohei Ohtani was indisputably the single most remarkable athlete on the face of the earth. Baseball needed a moment and got more than it could ever have dreamed.
Within minutes, it was proclaimed the strikeout heard round the world. But in the US, only time will tell if it was the strikeout heard around the country.
