Posted on 10/25/2024 11:19:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
There’s no bigger stage in baseball than a World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and there’s no bigger star than Japanese slugger Shohei Ohtani.
The 30-year-old’s ability to hit mammoth home runs, pitch over 100 mph and steal bases with ease got him a $700 million contract from the Dodgers this past offseason. But despite his on-field exploits, the 30-year-old is also known for being one of the most humble players in the league.
It’s an approach that was instilled in him when he was just a promising high school athlete. Ohtani attended Hanamaki Higashi High School, where coach Hiroshi Sasaki designed the athletic program to shape his players as people in addition to as athletes, according to journalist Jeff Fletcher’s 2022 book “Sho-Time”.
For the players, who dormed at the school during the season, this included being assigned chores. The task of cleaning the bathroom always fell to the pitchers because of the outsized attention they receive compared to the rest of the team when they take the mound.
“The mound is the most elevated place on the field,” Sasaki previously told the LA Times. “It’s a stage. If you’re on that stage, you receive the most attention. You get interviewed and written about the most.”
Not wanting any of his pitchers to get a big head — especially a star like Ohtani, who as a teen was able to hit 99 miles per hour on the radar gun — the coach devised the chore as a way to keep them humble.
“Once they get up [on the mound], they are at the pinnacle,” Sasaki told Fletcher for his book. “For the rest of the day I tell them, ‘You have to do the lowest job.’ Shohei never complained.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
“If you see a toilet, you can see the value of a place, the purpose with which the people there approach their work,” Sasaki told the Times, noting the care that Japanese department stores and hotels take in keeping their bathrooms clean. “It’s the most important place in an establishment, just like the mound is the most important place on the field.”
In the years since, Ohtani has remained humble. Even while earning tens of millions in the big leagues, the superstar has been known to pick up garbage when he sees it on the field.
Wax on, wax off
Mike Rowe approves
That was a wise Coach, who developed that training method.
It sounds like something one would do in a military Boot Camp.
I wonder how much he’s betting on tonight’s game... Peter Rose got banned for betting, and this dude gets a pass? Betting through a proxy is still betting.
Exactly what I was thinking.
That also works if you want to detail cars.
That was my first real job after paper routes, janitor in a restaurant................
It recounts an American baseball player's time in the Japan League. Very eye opening for the player.
Do you have any evidence that Ohtani ever bet on a baseball game? Or do you just enjoy libeling people under an assumed name?
And send your translator buddy to prison for you.
It’s a vast right wing conspiracy.
I find it hard to believe Ohtani would lose track of 18 million dollars. I find it equally hard to believe that an IRS/FBI investigation consisting of 100’s of government employees would not have leaked to a presstitiute had there been evidence Ohtani was proxy betting.
As such I cannot judge Ohtani guilty as many others have.
Apparently, Ohtani’s interpreter was doing the betting.
But where was the interpreter getting all the money
to do the betting? There were reports that the interpreter
used Ohtani’s money, which makes one wonder, how can
Ohtani not notice millions went missing from his bank
account.
Pete Rose not only got caught dead to the rights but was unapologetic (his real crime to the hypocrites at the HOF) so there is that. Plus gambling is not the worst thing Rose ever did. He bore false witness in court against a doctor who was prescribing amphetamines to the 79/80 Phillies. Rose and several other scum claimed the doctor was writing fake scrips in their names because they would not admit to taking greenies which were both legal and not banned by MLB, just embarrassing. He was willing to see a doctor and two poor guys who were essentially team gofers imprisoned rather than be embarrassed.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/05/sports/charges-dismissed-in-phils-drug-case.html
It is exceedingly common for rich athletes to be embezzled from by their “friends”.
Just look at Adrian Peterson.
Every season when I hired new staff for the Garden Center, the FIRST ‘meeting’ we had was in the bathrooms.
I showed them step-by-step how I wanted the toilets and bathroom cleaned and I did the work myself while showing them.
Then, it was their turn, LOL! Some of the teens were actually APPALLED and squeamish about it - they had never had to perform this task at home! (You can and WILL wash your own hands afterwards, Kids!)
If you passed ‘Bathroom Cleaning 101’ you got the job. If not - hit the bricks!
“If you’re too Big for the Small jobs, you’re too Small for the Big jobs!”
Great idea!
It weeded out the kids I knew would end up being shirkers. ;)
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