Origins
Before the majors, these players came up through Japanese school ball and the Japanese pro leagues. These stories go back to that record, using Japanese reporting from the time and official league numbers.
At 15, Ohtani wrote his target in the middle of a sheet: first-round pick of eight teams
Every Hanamaki Higashi player fills in a goal-setting chart on arrival. Japanese reporting shows how Ohtani's was set against Yusei Kikuchi's, and how the 2012 draft answered it.
Why Ohtani picks up trash: American outlets say luck, Japanese writers point to his high school coach
The habit has two explanations depending on which press you read. Both trace back to Hanamaki Higashi.
He threw 160 km/h in the semifinal, then lost the final on a home run he thought was foul
Ohtani's last summer in high school ended one game short of Koshien. Japanese accounts still argue about the third inning of the Iwate final.
Ohtani said he was going to the majors. Nippon-Ham drafted him anyway, and Japan called it reckless
Four days before the 2012 draft, Ohtani said he would skip Japanese pro baseball. Eleven clubs passed. One did not.
The document that changed Ohtani's mind: 26 pages or 30, written in 10 days or 3, depending on who tells it
Nippon-Ham's scouting director made a case against going straight to the majors. Japanese accounts of it agree on the argument and disagree on the details.
Kuriyama first saw Ohtani on a high school field in 2011. His promise was to let him pitch and hit
The two-way career began as a recruiting argument. Its first season in Japan was modest on both sides of the ball.
In 2014 Ohtani did something no one in Japanese pro baseball had done. In 2015 the bat went quiet
Double-digit wins and home runs in the same season, then a pitching breakthrough. The two years showed both sides of the plan.
Ohtani's 2016: a leadoff home run as the starting pitcher, a one-hitter to clinch, and 165 km/h in relief
His last full season in Japan produced an MVP with 253 first-place votes. It also produced a Best Nine selection that some Japanese writers questioned.
Before the 2016 Japan Series, a Number columnist told Hiroshima to give up the games Ohtani pitched
The 2016 Japan Series was Ohtani's only one in Japan. The pre-series coverage shows how the press saw him.
2017: an injured final season, a posting to the majors, and a decision Ohtani said he agonized over
Japanese reporting shows that the move was agreed a year in advance. Here is how his five Japanese seasons add up.