Tag: los-angeles-dodgers

The Glazing of Shohei Ohtani Needs to Stop

I like Shohei Ohtani.

Really, I do.

Assuming he pitches to a high level again, we will never see a another player quite like him. The combination of power at the plate, speed on the basepaths and filth on the mound won’t ever be duplicated. We should celebrate him and his role as Major League Baseball’s poster boy is the right marketing call. There is just one issue that continues to gnaw at me (and lots of other fans, including my kids) and it was triggered by an alert I received on my MLB app earlier today.

Shohei is wonderful but there are 51 other guys in a baseball game. Credit: Yahoo Sports

The excess glazing of Shohei Ohtani needs to stop.

The alert I mentioned above read, “Shohei Ohtani ignites Dodgers en route to win over Cubs”. If you watched the game like I did (or at least the action where the Dodgers scored three of their four runs), you know that Ohtani did nothing special other than get his team’s first hit. Equally as important were the following:

Andy Pages‘s walk.

Ohtani’s hustle to score the go ahead run.

Tommy Edman‘s single and slide to break up a double play.

Teoscar Hernandez‘s hustle down to first and then taking second on a throwing error.

Will Smith‘s single.

In other words, it was a total team effort, not the work of one player.

Equally infuriating were the Fox cameras showing Ohtani in the dugout seemingly every third pitch. NFL fans voiced their displeasure for cameras finding Taylor Swift. That was maybe one, two times per quarter. Taylor Swift is invisible compared to Shohei Ohtani.

Of course, nothing beats MLB Network’s Top 100 Players and the logic of selecting Ohtani over Aaron Judge. Bobby Witt Jr. was #3 and Juan Soto was #4. The reason for that order was because Witt was a more complete player than Soto who is much more one dimensional. For making Ohtani #1 and Judge #2, Greg Amsinger used the exact opposite logic in declaring Ohtani the best player in the game as a designated hitter. To boot, he implied you were a moron to think otherwise. No Greg, being a DH with lesser offensive numbers than a guy who played center field does not make for a better player. Judge outperformed Ohtani in in home runs, RBI’s, batting average, on base percentage and slugging. Sorry, but Ohtani is not the better player until he takes the mound again.

I’d like to give the correct Lynch kid credit but I do believe it was Ryan who said baseball didn’t care about stolen bases until Ohtani started going for 50-50 in 2024. I disagree. They made the bases slightly larger to increase the prevalence of the stolen base.. However, if younger fans are noticing how much MLB is forcing Shohei Ohtani down our collective throats, how long before they quit watching Dodgers’ games? Have him pitch Jack in the Box burgers. Give him New Balance cleats to hawk. Make Decoy a pet food spokesdog. Just stop insulting us by making him a singular focus during our viewing of baseball games.

MLB Schedule Is March Madness

Hand wringing. Sleep walking in the morning. Attention diverted from work. If you think I am talking about the NCAA Tournament, you are correct. All of the above conditions are the feelings felt by sports fans and the rest of the population that believes they will win their office pools. It truly is March Madness. There is another period of time during this month that can also be described as March Madness. However, unlike the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat that comes with the Tournament, this time of March is just………maddening.

Opening Day in Japan is March Madness at its worst. Credit Yahoo Sports

I am referring to the beginning of Major League Baseball’s regular season.

For the second straight year, there is no real Opening Day. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs open the season in Japan on Tuesday, a full nine days before the rest of the league begins playing games that count. Madness. Two teams play regular season games and then don’t participate in another meaningful contest for close to a week and a half. Madness. The first important games of 2025 and they begin at 5:10 AM CST and 3:10 AM PST for the two fanbases they affect. Madness. As you can tell, I am not a fan of this first series being played an ocean away. I’ve long given up on the idea that MLB would restore Cincinnati as the rightful place to play the first game of every regular season. To begin a season where 95% of fans who love a sport (like my family and me) will watch no more than two innings of a game in a country that needs no introduction to baseball is sheer madness.

To be sure, we will be watching Cubs-Dodgers on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading off to school and work. Some baseball is better than no baseball. I get that Major League Baseball is trying to spread its product worldwide. But to do so at the expense of the cherished traditions of Opening Day is………..complete madness.