At that time, I was already planning to come here to the U.S., so I never imagined going through the process I did.

Shohei Ohtani appeared at Koshien twice during his years at Hanamaki Higashi High School, but both appearances ended in first-round losses. He was never in perfect condition—injuries prevented him from pitching at full strength—which only deepened the frustration of those defeats.

That is precisely why Ohtani approached his final summer as a third-year student with complete seriousness. In the semifinals of the Iwate Prefectural Tournament, he threw a pitch clocked at 160 km/h, the fastest ever recorded by a high school pitcher. Expectations soared, but in the final, Hanamaki Higashi lost 3–5 to Morioka University Affiliated High School, and Ohtani’s dream of returning to Koshien came to an end.

One moment remained especially vivid. In the third inning, with runners on first and second and one out, a deep fly ball was hit down the left-field line. Ohtani thought, “That’s foul.” Instead, it was ruled a home run—a decisive blow in the loss. Looking back, Ohtani reflected calmly: “That was a pitch that got pulled up and out. I didn’t have the strength yet.”

Yet even in that moment, his gaze was already directed elsewhere. Ohtani later revealed that at the time, he was already planning to go to the United States. While many assumed he would enter Japan’s professional baseball system, Ohtani was thinking about becoming a pioneer—someone who would challenge Major League Baseball directly from high school.

He had always been drawn to paths no one else had taken. His pursuit of 160 km/h as a high school pitcher reflected that mindset, as did his decision to choose Hanamaki Higashi in hopes of achieving what his predecessor, Yusei Kikuchi, could not: a national championship from Iwate. Even though the path he ultimately followed differed from what he had originally imagined, Ohtani has steadily achieved the goals he envisioned for himself as a Major League player.

Source

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

Baseball Chronicle II: MLB Years 2018–2024 – Long Interview, p.81

Shohei Ohtani Quotes

At that time, I was already planning to come here to the U.S., so I never imagined going through the process I did.

Source

More Quotes

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