Sho-time

The story behind Shohei Ohtani’s legendary MVP season as baseball’s greatest two-way player—dominant pitcher and DH with otherworldly power at the plate—from his early days in Japan to his historic 2021 season, the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and more!

Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels plays baseball like no other athlete on the planet—an electric two-way player awarded the 2021 American League Most Valuable Player, the only player ever named an All-Star Selection as both a two-way dominant pitcher and elite hitter, a member of Time 100’s most influential people of 2021, and now the MVP of the 2023 World Baseball Classic. In Ohtani’s first two-way game of the 2021 season, he threw a pitch at 100 mph and hit a homer that left his bat at 115 mph, a confluence of feats unmatched by anyone else in the sport. He's racked up eye-popping achievements throughout his career, but awards and numbers tell only part of his amazing story.

In Sho-Time, award-winning sportswriter Jeff Fletcher—who has covered Ohtani more than any other American journalist—charts Ohtani’s path through Japanese baseball to a championship with the Nippon-Ham Fighters, the recruiting war to bring him to the majors, his AL Rookie of the Year campaign, subsequent injury-riddled seasons, the historic 2021 season, his 2023 World Baseball Classic, and beyond. Fletcher weaves in the history of two-way players—including Babe Ruth and unsung Negro Leagues players like “Bullet” Joe Rogan, Martin Dihigo, and Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe—and the Japanese athletes who preceded Ohtani in the majors. With insight from Japanese and American baseball front office personnel, managers, scouts, athletic trainers, ballplayers, and more, Sho-Time breaks down the physics of Ohtani’s game, his technologically advanced training, his international fame, and the role his role leading baseball into a new era.