I wonder what
Sadaharu Oh (he is still alive) thinks of Shohei Ohtani.
No one knows what Oh would have accomplished if he had come to major league baseball, but he averaged nearly 40 home runs a year for 22 years in Japan.
Oh never won a NPB game or even pitched in one. Oh walked a lot and Shohei is starting to see his walks increase as well. Comparing Oh to Ruth as a slugger is a speculative task. Not many would give the GOAT nod to Oh though.
If the Angels wanted to improve Shohei's offensive counting stats, they should have picked up Gehrig
before the trading deadline to bat behind him. Of course a healthy and younger Trout might help in that regard, but Trout and Gehrig are post-prime and post-mortem at this point.
Shohei's future career in baseball is unknown, but it will be interesting to see what happens in the next 10 years. Now we can only guess and not consider our (judge)ments
too seriously.
Trivia: Until I checked Oh's stats this morning I didn't realize the Sadaharu's mother was Japanese and his father was Chinese. In China he is known as
Wang Chen-chih.
OH MY!
Trivia: Oh was the pitching ace of his high school team as though, but never pitched in the NPB.
Trivia: Oh competed in a home run derby in Japan with Hank Aaron, that Hank won 10-9.