Shohei is unique, obviously, someone we have never seen before. What he does and how he does it so easily is just different. But such a big part of who he is […is his] pure joy for the game and the competition. […] With all of the success he’s had, he still has that joy. […] That’s Shohei: always competing and having fun doing it.”
—from the foreword by Joe Maddon, World Series champion and former Los Angeles Angels Manager
“Shohei Ohtani was the biggest story of the 2021 season, and perhaps any season. In Sho-Time, Jeff Fletcher masterfully chronicles not only what Ohtani accomplished in ‘21, but also provides the full context to his achievements. From Ohtani’s origin story in Japan to his recruitment by the Angels, his injury-marred 2019 and ‘20 seasons to his place in history next to Babe Ruth, Fletcher’s book is the definitive look at Ohtani’s two-way majesty.”
—Ken Rosenthal, Senior Writer at The Athletic
“Historians will be talking about Shohei Ohtani's 2021 season for decades, and thankfully the baseball gods arranged for Jeff Fletcher to be there to cover baseball's best two-way player ever in the midst of a pandemic, to bear witness and mine details and write with grace about the sport's most incredible individual performance.”
—Buster Olney, ESPN
“Shohei Ohtani is a singular phenomenon in baseball, and there’s nobody better to tell his story than Jeff Fletcher. Sho-Time is the essential portrait of baseball’s most captivating player, chronicling Ohtani’s rise from child prodigy in the snowy Iwate Prefecture to two-way MVP sensation under the bright lights of Major League Baseball. Fletcher goes beyond the carefully scripted press conferences, revealing in vivid detail the challenges and triumphs of a baseball journey like no other.”
—Tyler Kepner, The New York Times
“OK, I’ll admit it. I’m obsessed with Shohei Ohtani. I missed out on watching that Babe Ruth guy, but I feel lucky to have watched this guy. I even thought I knew a lot about him until I opened my copy of Jeff Fletcher’s brilliant new book. Sho-Time taught me so much I didn’t know about the most unique baseball player of our lifetimes. From the moment I read that phrase, ‘10-tool player,’ I was hooked!”
—Jayson Stark, The Athletic
“This is one the best baseball books ever published relevant to Japan-U.S. relations. Jeff Fletcher is the most experienced of the Angels beat writers, and usually the first one to ask Shohei Ohtani questions after the game. I admire the way he has exchanged information with Japanese writers for four years. This book is the fruit of his efforts. I always follow Jeff’s work in order to find new information relevant to Ohtani or Major League Baseball.”
—Hideki Okuda, Sports Nippon
"I thought I knew everything about Shohei Ohtani because I had seen all of his games and interviewed him for the first time in Tempe in 2018, but I didn’t quite know the extent of everything he did to redesign himself on the physical and mental side until after I read Sho-Time. I really appreciated learning about Ohtani’s dedication to be the best, starting from his days in Japan. I realized how much it took for him to get to this point, to have the best year in baseball history.”
—Mark Gubicza, Angels television analyst
05/01/2022
The game of baseball has seen the likes of Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and many others, but no player since Babe Ruth has produced the numbers Shohei Ohtani did in 2021. Quite simply, the six-foot-four-inch, 27-year-old Ohtani played the greatest season of all time. Award-winning sportswriter Fletcher chronicles Ohtani's otherworldly season and backtracks to detail his journey from a child prodigy in Japan to the MLB and how it was not always easy. He battled a few injuries in his career, including torn ligament inside his elbow, but ultimately overcame them and has exceeded his expectations. Few can throw a ball over 100 mph, hit more than 40 home runs, and steal more than 20 bases in one season. This is a great telling of Ohtani's story and Fletcher does a wonderful job of unfolding his career thus far. VERDICT Fans of Ohtani and anyone intrigued by the baseball phenom will enjoy this fascinating story.—Gus Palas
2022-04-27
He’s an ace pitcher. He’s a power-hitting designated hitter. And he’s still something of a mystery.
In a sport that has struggled mightily to groom household names in recent years, Shohei Ohtani (b. 1994) is a legitimate celebrity. A once-in-a-generation talent both on the mound and at the plate, the Japanese player became the subject of a bidding frenzy in 2017 when he decided to leave his homeland's major leagues to play in Major League Baseball. Ohtani opted to play for the Los Angeles Angels and struggled to find his footing thanks to injuries, Tommy John surgery, and a pandemic-shortened 2020 season. But he was still the American League Rookie of the Year in 2018, and 2021 was a breakout year: He pitched 157 strikeouts, posted an excellent 3.18 ERA, hit 46 home runs and 10 triples, and was named AL MVP. Who is this guy? Fletcher, a beat reporter for the Angels, scored excellent access to the front-office maneuverings behind Ohtani’s signing and to coaches and teammates amazed at his talents. (Angels manager Joe Maddon wrote the book’s foreword.) But Ohtani himself, who generally avoids one-on-one interviews, offers little beyond game-specific comments, and the book sometimes drowns in stats, details about finger blisters, and innocuous quotes. In fact, the narrative is often livelier when the focus isn’t directly on Ohtani, as when Fletcher catches up with a husband-and-wife pair who obsessively attend Ohtani’s games, details forgotten two-way players in the Negro Leagues, and explores just why two-way players are so rare (partly talent, partly the business of baseball). If Ohtani has interests beyond the game, Fletcher hasn’t uncovered them, but Ohtani’s laser focus plainly pays dividends. He belongs to “a super small class,” one rival GM says. “There’s one in the world.”
A glimpse into the life of a sports legend whose story is still being written.
