A Japanese baseball player wants to be the next ‘Babe Ruth.’
Welcome to Plain English for Thursday, April 12, 2018. I’m Jeff and you are listening to the podcast designed especially for English language learners. On today’s episode, Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese baseball sensation, has come to the United States, hoping to be the 21st Century version of Babe Ruth—the sport’s last player to be both a star pitcher and a star hitter. In the second half of the program, I’ll show you how to use the English expression, “flip a switch.”
If you are learning English, you can listen to the podcast and read the full transcript online. Today is episode 37, so go to PlainEnglish.com/37 to read the transcripts. Just a reminder that each transcript includes instant translations of difficult words and phrases from English to Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and French.
Japanese star wants to be modern-day Babe Ruth
He might be the most under-paid athlete in the world: Shohei Ohtani, the 23-year-old Japanese baseball superstar who jumped to the United States this year, is making the minimum salary in American baseball. But he’s after more than just money: he’s trying to make history as the first player to be both a star pitcher and a star hitter since Babe Ruth 99 years ago.
I know a lot of you are in countries that don’t follow baseball, so let me give you a quick primer. On a baseball team, there are generally pitchers, who are involved in every play and serve a pitch up to the batters, essentially starting every play. And then there are the batters, who hit the ball on offense and play one other position in the field when their team is on defense. Pitching is so complicated that players specialize in either pitching or batting playing another defensive position.
In America, the most famous player in history is Babe Ruth, who played in the 1920s. He was famous for being both a superstar pitcher and a superstar batter. His fame is what propelled baseball to being America’s favorite sport during that time.
Now, the Los Angeles Angels have a young star who wants to be a modern-day Babe Ruth: someone who can be a great hitter and a great pitcher. His name is Shohei Ohtani, and until last year he was the most famous player in Japan. Now, though, he is one of the most famous players in the United States, because he announced at the end of last year that he wanted to come play baseball in America.
And he’s off to a great start. During the warm-up period called Spring Training, in which teams play games that don’t count in the regular season, Shohei didn’t play very well. But when the regular season started last week, it was as if he flipped a switch: he pitched a dominant game in the first game of the year, and then hit a home run in each of his next three games. His team says they will let him pitch one game per week and hit three games per week.
Shohei is following in the footsteps of several other Japanese stars who have made the jump from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league to America’s Major League Baseball. Many have been stars at either pitching, like Yu Darvish and Hideo Nomo, or hitting, like Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui. Every time a star comes over, it’s a similar story: they have to get accustomed to a new culture; they usually speak through a translator, at least at first; and they face intense media scrutiny from both the American and Japanese media.
Shohei is used to being in the spotlight. He went to one of the best baseball high schools in his country, Hanamaki Higashi High School, and became a household name by age 19. When he was just 21, he was the most famous player in Japan. Now, just two years later, he’s a sensation in the United States, too. People describe him as shy, extremely polite, and almost boring since he doesn’t act like pro athletes in the United States. When he talks to the media, he gives routine answers without causing a controversy. He prefers to let his play do the talking—something I think a lot of other athletes should probably emulate.
There’s one really unfortunate thing about the story, though. American baseball has a lot of complicated rules regarding who can sign contracts at what age. Since Ohtani is only 23, he’s only allowed to make the league’s minimum salary–$545,000 per year. That’s not bad, but if he had waited just two more years, he could be making $20 million or more per year. Instead, he’s in a six-year contract at the league minimum. As much as I love baseball, I think these contract rules are really unfair. But Ohtani is probably playing the long game here: if he really can be the next Babe Ruth, he’ll be the most famous baseball player in the world and he can make up that lost money with sponsorship.
As I was writing this episode on Sunday, I watched Shohei’s second pitching performance of the year. He was in control—he absolutely dominated the Oakland A’s. It was fun to see the Japanese signs in the crowd, the Japanese billboards around the stadium, and all the kids and adults wearing Ohtani jerseys. So, the new star of the Los Angeles Angels has had two strong pitching performances and three home runs—all in the first week and a half of the season.
I know a lot of you are listening from Japan, so let me know what you think about Shohei’s move to the United States.
Today I want to say hello to Aranxa from Xalapa, Mexico. She’s friends with JR, the producer of the show. She’s been listening to podcasts, including Plain English, for a while, but she and JR never talked about it, until one day recently she mentioned that she listens to a podcast called Plain English, and JR told her that he actually edits the audio and does the Spanish translations for the show. That was a fun moment. Special thanks for Aranxa for listening.
Quick reminder before we get to today’s expression: I send out emails with every episode and I include links to the stories in English that I use to prepare the show. So if you want to read more about the main topic, you can follow those links and get the whole back story. If you want to get those emails, just go to PlainEnglish.com/mail , enter your details, and you’ll be signed up.
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