Collect a Shohei Ohtani signed and framed picture.
Shohei Ohtani (sometimes also spelt Otani) is a Japanese professional baseball player who currently plays with Major League Baseball (MLB) team Los Angeles Angels. A rare talent, he is equally dominant at pitching and hitting and is often dubbed as Japan’s Babe Ruth.
Ohtani was introduced to the sport by his father, and soon the incredible speed of his fast ball drew both domestic and international attention. Initially, he wanted to go to the United States right after finishing school, skipping the Japanese draft, but the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball’s (NPB) Pacific League aggressively courted him. He eventually relented and became their first pick in the 2012 draft. Ohtani would play the next five seasons for the Fighters and would lead them to the Pacific League Championship and Japan Series title in 2016. He has also won several personal accolades and is the current holder of the record of throwing the fastest pitch by a Japanese pitcher and in NPB history at 102.5 mph.
At the international level, he was a member of the bronze-winning Japanese team at the 2015 WBSC Premier 12 championship. In December 2017, he finally came to the US as a contracted player for the Los Angeles Angels. In 2021, Ohtani's season was formally recognized as "historically significant" and a "major impact on the sport" by Commissioner Rob Manfred, as he became the first two-way player in the history of Major League Baseball with 10+ homers and 20+ stolen bases as a hitter and 100+ strikeouts and 10+ pitching appearances as a pitcher in the same season while also holding at least a share of the major league lead in home runs in fourteen starts, as well as being the first player in MLB history to be an All-Star as both a pitcher and a hitter in the 2021 All-Star Game, where he was both a starter in both capacities, as the American League's manager-selected starting pitcher (who earned the win) and fan-elected starting designated hitter (who was also the leadoff hitter).