Shohei Ohtani — Blog

This is embarrassing

Today is one of the days I am glad my car has an automatic transmission. The day after running a 10K is not the time to be operating a car using both feet (as one must do in a vehicle with a manual gearbox). Not only did I run the 6.2 miles in the morning (freedom units!), but I also then walked another 13,000 steps in the afternoon, doing the usual photowalk in San Francisco’s Chinatown. My legs are a bit tired today, to say the least. Single-foot driving is definitely a luxury worth having. Long live the manual transmission, but these tired old legs prefer a car that can shift gears itself.

The day before the 10K run, I went to the Oakland Coliseum to watch baseball. The Los Angeles Angels was in town to face the Oakland Athletics, and that means the phenomenal Shohei Ohtani is also in town. While it’s sad he’s injured his elbow, and therefore won’t be pitching for (at least) the rest of the season, the two-way star is still serving duty with the bat as the Designated Hitter. Never one to pass up watching greatness in-person, we made the trip across the bay to Oakland.

And it was immediately clear that Ohtani is blockbuster in drawing a crowd. I’m fairly certain that half the people at the Coliseum was there to see him play. A sizable of number that continent was Japanese - some from here locally, some from Japan on travel. We were lined up at security behind a few Japanese travelers, and it was somewhat embarrassing to see them go through bag searches and metal detectors. Embarrassing for us Americans, and for America. Because back in their home country, security checks before entering a stadium is not a thing.

Crime is so low in Japan, and communal trust is so high, that people can freely go into sporting venues as if it’s a grocery store. I know this for a fact, because I’ve been to the Tokyo Dome to watch the Yomiuri Giants play. Meanwhile, here in the land of freedoms, we can’t even bring backpacks into venues now, because god forbid some maniac might sneak in something explosive. For a country that’s all about freedoms, the United States sure have a lot of movement restrictions. We ought to be embarrassed, honestly.

Back to live baseball

This is the short story of how I attended my first live baseball game in almost two years.

My friend and I were traveling in Los Angeles. We had a day in the schedule to basically do whatever. Turns out our hometown team the San Francisco Giants were playing a series agains the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim. It’s a sort of goal of mine to visit as many baseball stadiums around the country as possible. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to tick off Angels Stadium, and get to watch the Giants play.

Coincidently, two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani was scheduled to pitch on that Wednesday. This kid is straight out the wildest create-a-player fantasies in video game land. Not only can he throw an 100 MPH fastball along with one of the best splitters in the game, but he is also one of the best sluggers in baseball. As of this writing, Ohtani leads the major leagues in home runs. This guy is once-in-a-lifetime special.

Needless to say we jumped at the chance to see our team play and Ohtani pitch. But there’s a problem: the game is in Anaheim, which is rather far from where we were staying in Koreatown - especially when we don’t have a car. Luckily, there’s a local train that takes us right to the Angels Stadium doorsteps. We just have to get an UBER to LA’s Union Station. Imagine that, taking a train to go do stuff in America.

Of course, going to Anaheim and back, plus the game itself, consumed our entire day. That’s okay, because we’re on vacation and we built in that slack in the schedule on purpose. The game itself was spectacular: a five-hour, extra-innings thriller. The Giants persevered, even though Ohtani pitched supremely well, finishing six innings for a quality start. That’s about the best outcome we could’ve asked for.

It felt great to be back in a baseball stadium, taking in a game. God bless the people who got us the COVID vaccine so quickly.