When it comes to baseball players from Iwate Prefecture, Shohei Ohtani is now by far the most famous.

But he is not the only one.

There is Yusei Kikuchi, his senior at Hanamaki Higashi High School.
There is Roki Sasaki, who moved from the Chiba Lotte Marines to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And there is Rintaro Sasaki, who has been making his mark at Stanford University.

Iwate continues to produce players capable of competing on the world stage.

Among them, Yusei Kikuchi holds a special place.

For Ohtani, Kikuchi was a respected senior who proved that a player born in Iwate could stay in Iwate for high school and still aim for—and reach—the top in Japan.

Kikuchi joined the Seattle Mariners in 2019 after his time with the Seibu Lions.

That made Ohtani, three years younger, technically his senior in Major League Baseball by one year.

The two faced each other for the first time in June 2019.

Reflecting on that moment, Ohtani said, “Being able to face him on this stage meant a lot.”

And, in a moment fitting of a major league matchup, Ohtani hit a home run off Kikuchi.

With the added significance of a high school senior-junior connection and a Japanese matchup, many Japanese media gathered at the stadium.

After the game, Ohtani smiled and said:

“Kids playing baseball in Iwate might have been watching and enjoying it too.”

He also mentioned that he wanted to give the home run ball to his alma mater, Hanamaki Higashi High School.

Through his own experiences in youth and junior baseball, Ohtani had come to believe that if talented players from Iwate came together, they could even win a national championship at Koshien.

He himself was unable to achieve that dream.

But seeing the next generation—including players like the two Sasakis—he may well feel that those dreams will be carried forward.

Source

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

Following Shohei Ohtani: A Reporter’s 10-Year Chronicle, p.224