The origin of the monster Shohei Otani, as seen by a reporter who covered him during his Nippon-Ham days.

Where he headed besides the ballpark and the dormitory

Shohei Ohtani, 31, has been on a roll this season in both pitching and hitting, including breaking Ichiro’s Japanese record of 43 consecutive games on base. His extraordinary performance, which is reported on a daily basis, has fans around the world in a frenzy.

However, his overwhelming performance was not built overnight.

When Otani first joined the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in ‛13, his dormitory in Kamagaya, Chiba, was packed day after day with the mass media. However, their expectations were betrayed in a good way.

A reporter who has been following Otani on the field reveals the strange aura that the young player radiated, as well as the story behind his thoroughgoing temperance.

He was seen only three times outside of his dormitory and the ballpark. That is, only twice to the beauty parlor and once to a yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant with his teammates. He was so infrequently out and about that the team’s public relations department said, ‘No matter how long you wait, it’s useless. He has no interest in anything other than baseball.

Ohtani’s stoicism was unique even in the national team, where top players gather.

At a farewell party for the 2004 WBC, Otani was invited to a yakiniku banquet attended by all of the players. All the players were invited to a yakiniku party, but as soon as the party was over, Otani was the only one to leave the hotel without a second glance.

Otani has been taking every possible precaution to manage his condition, keeping “fun” and “socializing” to a minimum. This attitude had already been perfected during his time with Nichi-Ham.

His current historic success in the Majors is not a coincidence. The extreme self-control and solitary efforts as a “seeker” that he has maintained since his younger days have shaped the “monster” Shohei Ohtani of today.

In the “Entertainment Reporter Channel” of FRIDAY Digital (YouTube), active reporters have been reporting on “Otani, Sakamoto, and Kiyohara, too… Reporters have seen them all!　Professional Baseball Players: Their Real Faces Off the Field”, the reporters who covered these hotly contested games reveal the real faces of the players off the field.