When Shohei Ohtani stole his 40th base of the season Friday, August 23, at Dodger Stadium, he was again showing off his speed. When he cracked a walk-off grand slam in the ninth inning of the same game for his 40th home run and a 7–3 Los Angeles Dodgers victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, he was just Sho-wing off.
And this Sho must go on.
Ohtani joined the exclusive 40–40 club with Alfonso Soriano (who achieved the milestone in 2006), Jose Canseco (1988), Ronald Acuña Jr. (2023), Alex Rodriguez (1998), and Barry Bonds (1996).
The idea of the first Major League Baseball player to have 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a season is real, and the unimaginable is becoming tougher to explain as the Japanese superstar climbs the ladder toward becoming the crown jewel of the diamond.
“I don’t think there are any limits on what he could do,” former big-league player, manager, and current Los Angeles Angels advisor Bobby Valentine told The Epoch Times on Sunday. “If it’s humanly possible, he’s capable of doing it.
“He’s a genius when he’s at the plate and when he’s playing baseball, and everybody else just has to watch and wonder why he’s so spectacular.”
Valentine, who also managed two stints in Japan with the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Pacific League and won the Japan Series in 2005, said Ohtani is reaching peak performance.
“When you saw Shohei play in Japan, you had to understand that the power was so incredible that he would play at this level every time he went out on the field. I think that he gets stronger all the time. He’s probably mature now in his body and his swing. His swing is so efficient, and he’s tall and understands how to use his legs with his body to make the ball go 400 feet with just an easy swing.”
Valentine also pointed out Ohtani’s ability to change his approach in different situations.
“He’ll hit balls with two strikes and looks like Ichiro [Suzuki] at times, and he’ll hit balls [with the count] at 3–1 and look like [Japan’s all-time homer king] Sadaharu Oh. Not many people can do what he does, nor can they do it how he does it.”
Ohtani was the fastest to 40–40, needing 126 games, and he’s also the first Dodgers player to do it.
And the fact that he stole No. 40 and slugged No. 40 in the same game—in such Hollywood-scripted fashion—even the 30-year-old added some rare excitement to his voice during the on-field postgame interview after Friday’s walk-off blast.
“This is the best moment I’ve had since coming to the Dodgers,” Ohtani said in a postgame interview. “I wasn’t thinking about anything in particular at the plate. I just wanted to get a hit, and I wanted to win the game.”
Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp had 39 homers and stole 40 bags in 2011 to become the closest Dodger to a 40–40 season. Not even Raul Mondesi, the only other player in team history to have two 30–30 seasons (in 1997 and ’99), could make it happen. Dodgers stars Davey Lopes, Pedro Guerrero, and Kirk Gibson all came close to that milestone but came up short.
The 6-foot-4 Ohtani can generate impressive speed on the bases, but that facet of his game has often been overlooked.
“I’ve talked to various people since coming to the Dodgers, and I thought about how to develop an aggressive approach and take the next base,” Ohtani told the media postgame on Friday. “I also talked to the coaches and tried to find the best way of taking advantage of my speed, and that communication has been the No. 1 reason for the success [on the bases].”
When asked about aiming to become baseball’s first 50–50 player, Ohtani answered in stride.
“If those numbers are going up for me, it means we have a better chance to win games, and we are going to have a lot of important ballgames coming up here soon, so I want to increase those numbers and help us win,” he said.
Ohani has triggered changes in the record books all season. He passed slugger Hideki Matsui for the all-time homer mark among Japanese-born big leaguers with his 176th blast in April. Ohtani stole three bases in a game earlier this month to become the first Japanese player to reach the 30–30 milestone. And his home run in the All-Star Game, the first to clear the fence for a Japanese hitter, was icing on this season’s cake.
All this, and the two-way wonder has yet to pitch since joining the Dodgers in the offseason. He threw off a mound on Sunday for the first time since his Tommy John surgery last year. So, there’s even an encore coming for the Sho of a lifetime.
