In 2021, Shohei Ohtani won the American League MVP after a historic two-way season. Yet the Angels failed to reach the postseason. That year, Ohtani remarked that he wanted “a more intense September.”

Some interpreted it as a desire to leave for a stronger team.

But this mindset had existed long before MLB.

In his third season with the Fighters, Ohtani was named Opening Day starter for the first time. In the second inning, he faced a bases-loaded, no-out crisis. Many pitchers unravel in moments like that.

He did not.

He later explained why.

“Winning a game you’re expected to win isn’t that exciting. The games where you don’t know who will win — maybe you might even lose — those make victory feel bigger. That’s why, without tension, it’s not interesting.”

For Ohtani, nervousness is not something to avoid.

It is proof that the stakes matter.

He does not seek comfortable victories. He seeks meaningful ones.

In the final inning of the World Baseball Classic championship game, the intensity on his face was unmistakable. In high-pressure Septembers with the Dodgers, he has looked fully alive.

Certainty is dull.
Defeat is unacceptable.
The space in between — where outcome is uncertain — is where he thrives.

Pressure, to him, is not weight.

It is fuel.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.

Shohei Ohtani: Baseball Chronicle I (Japan Edition 2013–2018), p.145