Before Shohei Otani became a Dodger, I didn’t fully understand the sports fan craze. Sure, when my now 22-year-old son was younger I cheered at his pee-wee soccer games and manned the snack stand during little league. He loved neither sport as much as I liked cheering. But aside from having been a wide-eyed, horse-crazy kid watching on TV as the phenomenal Secretariat scored increasingly gargantuan wins in the Triple Crown in 1973, I didn’t understand what all the rabid sports-fan whoopla was about.
During the little league and pee-wee soccer years, I did come to understand the importance of sports for young males. All that energy and testosterone zipping around just aching for release. If it weren’t for organized (or even unorganized) sports, I think we might have a lot more fighting and wars. Males need an outlet! Of course, this generalization does not apply to every single living soul, male or female, but I came to witness and understand the importance of having a productive channel through which to funnel that young male zest.
Back to Ohtani. My son originally made me a mild baseball fan. Were it not for his love of watching the game, I likely would not have noticed how any particular team was faring or when the season started or stopped. But because of my son’s enthusiasm, I got more interested, at least when I was at an actual game. Over the years, we have been to dozens of Dodger games, including even one World Series game (the Dodgers lost but the game went 13 innings and was a nail biter). Getting to quaff Dodger Dogs doesn’t hurt either. I have had a few favorite players – I love Mookie Betts these days - and I have come to understand what a primal thrill it is to yell at the top of your lungs alongside 50,000 strangers who are also yelling at the top of their lungs for the same thing.
And then came Ohtani. It’s not simply that he is big and cute and says more through his actions than through words. For me, it is that he is simply much better than many of his peers. And the fact that he makes it all look unbelievably easy. Almost effortless, like Secretariat. It’s got to be tough to be a Dodgers teammate when Ohtani is such a standout (I always felt bad for Secretariat’s main rival Sham), but it doesn’t dim Ohtani’s accomplishments. He is doing what we had previously thought of as impossible and looking like he’s having fun in so doing.
Call it a happy distraction – a term I used to think applied to most sports – but I have come to value sports, to even cherish the high of watching a 50th home run in a season the same way I can rewatch Secretariat demolish the Belmont Stakes field countless times and it never gets old. It is the witnessing of another living being doing something extraordinary! It must have been like watching Muhammed Ali in his prime, or Wayne Gretzky or, more recently, Simone Biles. Every once in a while, we get to bear witness to a being doing something we had previously considered impossible. And to experience such a thing feels like a great privilege, the experience being both humbling and inspiring.
Secretariat accomplished an “unbelievable task” when he broke the track and race record by more than 2 seconds, an eon in horse racing. And Ohtani seems to be doing the same thing – making previously unattainable feats look easy. Even nonchalant. And during this season of elections and political strife, of societal challenges all around us, it feels good – no, great – to be able to cheer out loud for something. Especially alongside my son.
The original sports inspiration story for me remains Secretariat, and watching him crush the talented field of rivals in the Belmont Stakes still thrills me and brings me to tears. On that eventful day, Secretariat pulled increasingly away to win by a whopping 31 lengths, leading the announcer to declare “Secretariat is all by himself… he is moving like a tremendous machine!”. Go ahead – I dare you not to cry (I always do). https://youtu.be/V18ui3Rtjz4?si=Jd1lsL_ZQBZbTYZD
It is wonderful to be reminded that greatness, in whatever form or incarnation, whether horse or human, does exist. That we are lucky to be able to witness it when it passes by us during our lifetimes. So thank you for the inspiration, Secretariat and Ohtani. And go Dodgers!
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