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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Roger Basick.
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And I’m Alice Irizarry. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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The Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first paid baseball team in 1869. It was almost one hundred years later that the first Japanese player, Masanori Murakami, was permitted to play in the United States for Major League Baseball. Murakami only played two years in Major League Baseball before returning to play in Japan. Thirty years later, Hideo Nomo became the second player from Japan to play in Major League Baseball. Several years later, Ichiro Suzuki who was later chosen for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, began playing in the Major Leagues. Slowly, more Japanese baseball players got a chance to play in the United States. Then in 2018, a new Japanese baseball player made his first appearance in Major League Baseball. But this player was different. He could do things on the field that no one had ever done. In just a few short years, people began to wonder if he was the best baseball player ever.
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Today’s Spotlight looks at the baseball player Shohei Ohtani.
Baseball is a game played with a bat for hitting a ball between two teams of nine players. The ball is twenty-three centimeters around a rubber core. The bat is a smooth, rounded stick made of solid wood. It is usually eighty-six centimeters long. Baseball is played on a big field that has two areas called the infield and the outfield. The infield has four bases.
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A player on one team called the pitcher throws the ball. A player on the other team tries to hit the ball with his bat. If a player hits the ball, he must run to the next base. If a defender catches the ball or throws the ball to his teammate before the batter reaches a base, the batter is out. If the hitter reaches the base before the ball does, he is safe. This is called a hit. A player must touch all four bases to gain a point for his team. Each team can make three outs before the other team gets to bat. When both teams have taken a batting turn, one inning is complete. There are nine innings in a baseball game. The team that gets the most points wins.
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From the 1920s to the 1950s, baseball was the most popular sport in the United States. Several great players, like Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, helped make baseball popular. But there was one player who had the biggest influence on the sport’s rise in popularity: Babe Ruth. He was a powerful hitter. He hit many home runs. A home run is when the batter hits the ball over the fence at the back of the outfield. The batter gets to run and touch all four bases to get a point. Fans loved watching Ruth hit home runs. Ruth hit sixty home runs in one season. It was a record for over thirty years. When he stopped playing baseball, Ruth had hit 336 more home runs than anyone in history.
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But before Ruth became a great hitter, he was a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He was one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball. The Red Sox traded Ruth to the New York Yankees for a lot of money. Ruth and the Yankees decided he should switch to hitting because he was so good at it. Also, as a pitcher, Ruth would not get to play every game. After pitching, he had to rest his arm for a few games. Other pitchers took turns in pitching games. Ruth wanted to play every game. The Yankees knew they could sell more tickets if Ruth played every game. Ruth stopped pitching and became a full-time hitter. One baseball writer wrote:
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“Ruth changed how baseball was played. He made the home run the most exciting part of the sport. His style of play led to more points and more interesting games. This increased baseball’s popularity. New fields were built. Record numbers of fans attended games.”
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After Ruth retired, most baseball fans believed he was the best player ever. No one else had been both a great pitcher and a great hitter. No one believed someone could do both again. But Shohei Ohtani changed that.
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Ohtani began playing baseball for Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. He played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters for five seasons. Ohtani hit many home runs and pitched successful games. He then switched to Major League Baseball in the United States. Ohtani played for the Los Angeles Angels. He won the Rookie of the Year Award that goes to the best first-year player in the Major Leagues. A few seasons later, Ohtani hit even more home runs and struck out many batters. A strikeout is when a batter fails to hit three pitches that the umpire, or official in charge, decides were well thrown. Each of these three pitches counts as a strike. Three strikes make an out.
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Over the next few seasons, Ohtani continued to improve. He led the league in home runs and won ten games as a pitcher. He won the Most Valuable Player Award that goes to the best player in the league. Ohtani then received the biggest job offer in sports history. The Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball gave Ohtani $700,000,000 to play for them for ten years. In his first season with the Dodgers, Ohtani helped his team win the championship. He also became the first player in Major League Baseball history to hit fifty or more home runs and steal fifty or more bases in one season. A player can try to steal a base by running from one base to the next base while the pitcher is throwing the ball to the batter. If the man catching the ball from the pitcher cannot throw the ball to his teammate standing on a base before the runner arrives, the player has successfully stolen the base. The following season, Ohtani won another Most Valuable Player Award and another championship with the Dodgers.
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Before Ohtani, baseball trainers did not think it was possible to be great at both hitting and pitching. Babe Ruth was the only player who had ever done it. But Ruth only hit and pitched in games for two seasons before concentrating on hitting. Trainers said pitchers should work on throwing the ball. There are different kinds of pitches that must be mastered like fastball and curveball. It takes a lot of time and work to learn to pitch. Hitting a baseball is considered one of the hardest things in sports to do. It also requires a lot of work to learn how to hit. Trainers said it would take too much time and energy for one player to try to hit and pitch well. Players had to choose one. But Ohtani changed that thinking. He proved that it is possible to be great at both hitting and pitching. Ohtani created the chance for players in the future to hit and pitch in the same game.
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There may not be another player who reaches Ohtani’s level of skill at both pitching and hitting. But some players will now have a chance to be good at both. Many baseball players in high school and college do well at both hitting and pitching. But in the past, when these players were paid, they were not permitted to continue to do both. Because of Ohtani, many will now be offered the chance to follow in his footsteps.
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Is Ohtani the best baseball player ever? For over a hundred years, baseball trainers have hoped to find five-tool players. These tools are the skills of a baseball player. It is rare for one player to have five tools. The skills are the ability to hit home runs, run fast, throw the ball hard, get many hits, and catch the ball well. Ohtani has five tools. But Ohtani has added a sixth tool. He not only has a strong arm, but it is so powerful and skilled, he can pitch well. In the past, a strong arm only helped someone play better defense. A player could throw the ball to his teammate faster than the batter could run to the base. Ohtani’s arm is so strong, and his control is so good that he can be a pitcher. Sportswriter Neil Paine said:
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“Ohtani changed how we do a simple study of baseball statistics. His skills are so far outside of what is usually considered ‘normal’ for the purposes of reporting on a baseball game.”
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It is Ohtani’s special speed, strength, and pitching ability that sets him apart from everyone who has ever played the game, including Babe Ruth. Ruth did not have Ohtani’s speed. Ruth did not hit and pitch for as long. Ohtani is doing things that people said were impossible in baseball. In a recent game, Ohtani hit three home runs and struck out ten batters. He hit one of his three home runs so hard it flew out of the ballpark. Maybe the most amazing thing is that Ohtani is only thirty-one years old. Imagine what he will do next.
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Have you seen any of Ohtani’s games? What do you think is most special about the way Ohtani plays baseball? Have you ever played baseball? Would you like to go to one of Ohtani’s games one day? You can leave a comment on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and X. You can also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
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The writer of this program was Peter Anderson. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. No A.I. or artificial intelligence, was used in this episode. Spotlight programs are written, voiced, and produced by real people for real people, no matter where in the world they live. This episode is called, “Is Shohei Ohtani the Best Baseball Player Ever?”
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We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight episode. Goodbye.
Questions:
Have you seen any of Ohtani’s games? What do you think is most special about the way Ohtani plays baseball? Have you ever played baseball? Would you like to go to one of Ohtani’s games one day?
