Ahead of Thursday’s (21 November) MLB MVP announcement, USA and former LA Angels manager Mike Scioscia says his ex-pupil Ohtani was earmarked for ‘incredible’ success.
Take it from Shohei Ohtani’s first big-league manager, reaching an unprecedented level of greatness was always a matter of when – not if.
Mike Scioscia is back in Japan as USA manager for the Premier12 baseball tournament at Tokyo Dome, where his team on Thursday (21 November) will face the hosts in a showdown of a rematch of the 2023 World Baseball Classic and Tokyo 2020 Olympic finals (held in 2021).
The US, with Scioscia as skipper, took silver at the Games three years ago amid the Covid-19 bubble, in front of empty stands at Yokohama Stadium.
In Group A of the Premier12 in Mexico, the US finished runner-up to Venezuela, qualifying for this week’s Super Round in Tokyo. This week also happens to be MLB Awards week and on Thursday, Ohtani – who Scioscia managed in his rookie year with the Los Angeles Angels – is expected to win his third MVP after a historic campaign, and World Series triumph.
In his first season with the other LA team, the Dodgers, Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and swipe 50 bases in the same year. He is set to become only the second player to win the award in both leagues, and the first full-time designated hitter recipient.
Scioscia, though, isn’t surprised by what Ohtani has achieved, seven years after he gave the two-way superstar his major league debut.
“When I was with the Angels we had Shohei for one season and then I retired,” said Scioscia, who was the longest-tenured manager in the majors – 19 seasons with the Angels.
“But in the recruiting process, there’s no doubt he showed the confidence and showed the physical ability to do what he’s doing.
Mike Scioscia is back in Japan for the Premier12 as USA manager after leading the team to a silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
(2021 Getty Images)
“We had restrictions on Shohei the first year of when he could hit and when he could pitch, just to get him acclimated to playing the season in the United States. And I think you can see as he got acclimated, he is doing what he has the potential to do.
“This is not a fluke. This guy is incredibly talented and he works hard at it. And so if you say did we foresee him doing this? Absolutely. When it was going to happen, we weren’t sure because we were limited in the beginning to make sure that he was pitching, getting his rest, and then hitting.
“We saw this potential in him and what he’s doing is, it’s incredible.”
Unlike Tokyo 2020 in 2021, Thursday night at the Dome, which has a capacity of 50,000, will be full of fans as the sport’s heavyweights go head-to-head.
Before a fired-up crowd, Scioscia would love nothing more than to hand Japan their first defeat of the tournament, which will not be easy with their home-field advantage against a team who make very few mistakes.
“I think it was disappointing in the Olympics because of the circumstances with Covid,” he said. “We were in Yokohama and the stadium was beautiful and we would love to experience it being filled, what the energy would have been like. We’ll get to do that tomorrow here and we’re looking forward to that.
“I think they have a very fundamentally sound team. They played great defense, they’ve got a deep offensive lineup and any time you’re going to play a team of that caliber, you have to play well to beat them.
“And that’s what we’re going to focus on – how we’re playing the game. Not who we’re playing or where we’re playing, but how we’re playing the game. And that’s going to be an important mindset for us going through this tournament.”
