Few debates have followed Shohei Ohtani as persistently as this one:
What if he had focused only on pitching?
What if he had committed solely to hitting?
Would his records have been even greater?
It is an intriguing question — but ultimately, a hypothetical one.
Unlike scientific experiments, life does not allow control groups. No one can live two versions of the same career and compare outcomes side by side. There is no parallel timeline to test which path was “correct.”
Ohtani understands this.
“Maybe focusing on one would have been better. Or maybe doing both was better. There isn’t a right answer. For me, whatever I chose and committed to — that’s the right answer. I want to believe that. I want to believe in what I’ve done.”
When people face A or B, they often freeze, trying to calculate the “correct” option. But once a choice is made, comparison becomes irrelevant.
You cannot choose both.
What remains is commitment.
For Ohtani, the goal is not to discover the correct path in advance.
It is to make the chosen path correct through conviction and effort.
He does not chase certainty.
He creates meaning through action.
Source
This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.
Opening a Path, Crossing the Ocean: The True Story of Shohei Ohtani, p.291