“I never heard anyone calling him Babe Ruth.”But Ohtani is not perceived as some Ruthian colossus in the making in Japan. Ohtani, 23, meanwhile, has both pitched and hit with distinction as a member of the Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball. Darvish has never been a two-way player, but he, like Ohtani, began pitching for the Fighters at age 18, in 2005. Those numbers, similar in how good they are, suggest that Ohtani, if nothing else, should be an impactful pitcher in the United States. “Even if he gets unfair expectations from American fans, he is a live-and-let-live type of person,'’ Yamagata said.

Source: thestar December 03, 2017 01:07 UTC