The story of Shohei Ohtani’s first game on the international stage: ‘OK, this kid is disgusting’

Fourteen years in the past, on the outskirts of Seoul, South Korea, a bunch of 20 keen, Canadian teenage baseball gamers have been handed a humbling bit of information.

The membership, made up of proficient excessive schoolers from throughout the commonwealth, was holding a pregame assembly earlier than its opening matchup of the 2012 18-and-under Baseball World Championship towards Team Japan. Head coach Greg Hamilton, a no-nonsense Canadian baseball lifer, strolled into the room. He checked out the children he’d helped assemble, the majority of whom had by no means been so removed from dwelling. A handful, resembling Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill and Jacob Robson, would go onto play in the majors. Others would carve out minor-league careers. Some selected different paths.

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But all of them keep in mind the relaxation of that day. It began with a scouting report from Hamilton that was half-warning, half-pep-talk.

“The guy on the mound for Japan is the best 18-year-old pitcher in the world.” the sometimes delicate, un-hyperbolic skipper informed his gamers, in response to Robson. “And he’s also the best 18-year-old hitter in the world.”

He was, of course, referring to Shohei Ohtani.

Although, technically talking, Ohtani’s identify didn’t but have an anglicized H. During the 2012 18U BWC, each his Samurai Japan uniform and the official field scores spelled that now unmistakable surname “Otani.”

Things are slightly completely different now. These days, the 31-year-old is a worldwide celebrity, a nationwide hero and the captain of Japan’s quest to seize back-to-back World Baseball Classic titles. Three years in the past, in his first WBC look, Ohtani propelled his membership to glory with an unprecedented two-way efficiency. He gained the event’s MVP Award by going 10-for-23 at the plate with 10 walks and 5 extra-base hits. He additionally made two sensible begins, in addition to an unforgettably dramatic aid look to shut out the championship game towards then-teammate Mike Trout.

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With the 2026 event in full swing, and Samurai Japan set to play Venezuela in the quarterfinals on Saturday nightthe focus is as soon as once more on Ohtani.

But whereas his international profession has blossomed into the stuff of legend, it began with a disappointing afternoon in entrance of a reported attendance of simply 125 individuals. In the first Team Japan look of his life, Ohtani, already a decently identified character in his homeland, was bested by a pesky squad of Canadians who did not know who he was till Greg Hamilton informed them.

“[Hamilton] went on to say that he didn’t say it to get us scared,” Robson explained. “He was just trying to prepare us, like, ‘Hey, he throws super hard. ‘He knows what he’s doing.’ Everybody’s been on him since he was a young kid. He’s a prodigy.”

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Prodigy he may need been, however Ohtani’s last pitching line that day was underwhelming: 3 1/3 innings, 3 hits, 3 earned runs, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts. At the plate, he went 1-for-3 with an intentional stroll and a laser-beam, double-play lineout that almost decapitated Canadian hurler Ryan Kellogg.

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Coincidentally, though a handful of MLB evaluators have been in attendance, it was a considerably smaller group than one may anticipate. That’s as a result of a extremely touted Korean lefty named Hyun-Jin Ryu, who was set to maneuver to MLB that winter, was throwing the similar day for the Hanwha Eagles. And so a quantity of scouts who would’ve in any other case seen Ohtani have been out watching Ryu.

But although Ohtani bought knocked round and knocked out early, the opposing hitters have been blown away by his stuff.

“I step in the box, and he’s just pumping heat, 94, 95,” remembered shortstop Daniel Pinero, who went on to win a College World Series with the University of Virginia. “At that time, nobody threw that hard, especially high schoolers. And we were coming from Canada, too, where it was 85, 86.

“This long, lanky kid goes on the mound, and he’s just pumping heat, with nasty movement, too, and we’re like, ‘OK, this kid is disgusting.’”

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That overpowering arsenal left Canada flummoxed in the early going, with Ohtani inducing some ugly, ugly swings along the way. He struck out three in the second inning, including Naylor, the future All-Star and 2026 team captain for Canada in the WBC. In the third, Ohtani’s command abandoned him, as a walk, a passed few balls and a single led to Canada’s first run. Things went south one inning later, when a walk, a hit-by-pitch and two singles gave Canada the lead.

That brought Japan’s manager out of the dugout for a pitching change, but Ohtani’s day was far from done.

“I think they took him out of the game, and he just jogged to the outfield,” Robson said. “I think he played outfield every inning he didn’t pitch.”

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Ohtani also continued to take at-bats, flaring an RBI single to left in the seventh and drawing an intentional walk in the ninth. Japan took the lead in the seventh, but Canada sent the game to extra innings in dramatic fashion at the bottom of the ninth, with a game-tying, two-run homer off the bat of third baseman Jesse Hodges. The Canadians ultimately walked it off on a wild pitch in the 10th, completing the upset.

“These are the types of games that you dream of for as a kid,” Hodges was quoted as saying afterward. “Hitting a home run to tie the game in the ninth for your country is the best feeling in the world.”

That victory pushed Canada to at least one of its finest outcomes on the international stage, a silver medal, following the loss to Team USA in the title game. Ohtani would pitch another time in the event, in the fifth-place game towards host Korea. In that one, he was dominant, placing out 12 throughout seven innings of two-run ball, a extra applicable harbinger of the stellar international profession he’d go on to have.

But that first outing? Against Canada? For Ohtani and his teammates, it was one to neglect. But for the Canadian gamers, it was a core reminiscence, one they give thought to to this day.

Said Robson: “I always say that to random people when they’re talking about Ohtani — like, ‘Oh, I played against him in high school.’

“They’re like, ‘What?’”