Shohei Ohtani had more than just an impact on the LA Angels in his GOAT season this year.
He had an even bigger impact on the league as a whole, and the game as a whole. Baseball was in a tough spot entering 2021. There was constant discussion of the game dying (especially compared to football and basketball), the league was trying to manage a historic global pandemic, and the whole "sticky stuff" issue was looming over the sport. Ohtani, however, focused the entire world on baseball. He was a global sensation that turned heads all over the world. I even experienced it firsthand; I was interviewed by many Japanese media outlets about Ohtani, as Japan couldn't get enough of the two-way superstar.
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