Shohei Ohtani, international man of history.
Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single bound.
Neither bird, nor plane, he might be a superhero, the Dodgers’ Japanese sensation, their $700 million man, and now, the first major leaguer to achieve that mind-bending 50-50 milestone in one season.
Make it 51-51, though, for funsies. Laugh about it, Shohei, because what else can you do?
What can’t he do?
Ohtani is the special athlete who can rewrite history books and our literal definitions: 50-50 used to mean only that you were on the fence about something. Now it makes you think of how many times Ohtani hit it over. How many times he moved himself over on the base paths.
How lucky you are to witness the Sho – which on Thursday in the Dodgers’ 20-4 road victory over the Miami Marlins, featured Ohtani going 6 for 6 with three home runs, four runs scored, 10 RBIs and, yes, two stolen bases.
It was an offensive clinic for all time from the man who should be this season’s National League MVP.
It’s like how 40-40 was once solely a reference to perfect vision and not an exclusive, you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it club for players with that rare combination of power and speed.
The group of giants: Jose Canseco and Barry Bonds, who both had seasons of 42 homers and 40 stolen bases; Alex Rodriguez, 42 and 46; Alfonso Soriano, 46 and 41; Ronald Acuña Jr., 41 and 73; just last year.
And this season, for a spell, it included Ohtani. A youthful, humble 30-year-old who makes baseball look ridiculously easy and like a heck of a lot of fun, he burst into the 40-40 club in grand style on Aug. 23, with a walk-off grand slam.
Since then, the Dodgers’ two-way sensation – limited to and possibly extra-focused on designated hitter duty this season while he’s recovered from elbow surgery – has been pushing the bar only higher.
He’s made history with every subsequent swipe and home run swing, founding his own 43-43 club on Aug. 30. And keeping whoever was keeping meeting minutes since busy as Ohtani continued his march toward 50-50. Or, 51-51. For now.
Baseball’s brain trust want to encourage base stealing these days by limiting pickoff attempts and step-offs and bulking up the size of the bases. And Ohtani has responded as if it would be rude to not take them up on it.
What a guy. What a menace. Ohtani has so far stolen 25 more bases than in any of his previous six major league seasons with the Angels, and he has the second-most in baseball this season behind Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz, who has 64.
And now Ohtani has his 50th home run, also a career-high and a Dodgers’ franchise-record.
He clinched that history the same day the Dodgers clinched a playoff berth, which snapped Ohtani’s MLB-leading 865-game drought without a postseason appearance.
Congrats, Mike Baumann, you will forever be linked to arguably – but, be serious, who’s arguing? – the greatest ballplayer ever, remembered as the man who was on the mound when Ohtani crossed the 50-50 threshold, when he added this colorful, unforgettable page to his already decorated legacy: Bam! Pow! Boom!
What’s really fun is that Ohtani isn’t done.
The Dodgers have invested in the two-time American League MVP for 10 years, which means we get to look forward to even more page-turning feats, imagination-defying stunts, more history being made.
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Especially the pursuit of the most-coveted of history – championships.
The Dodgers have made 11 consecutive playoff appearances, winning 10 NL West titles and three NL pennants during that stretch. But they have just one World Series title to show for it, in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
But now they have Ohtani aboard, and he’s not ruled out pitching this postseason. With their badly ailing pitching staff, the Dodgers sure could use a superhero on the mound, a Cy Young Award runner-up who went 38-19 with a 3.01 ERA in five seasons pitching for the Angels.
The way Ohtani stepped up to the plate with the world watching and waiting Thursday, the improbable and impossible again seem probable and possible. With Ohtani around, we get to believe in unicorns. In aliens. In base-stealing home run kings.
How lucky are we to get to sit together and watch his story come to life.