Throughout his career, Shohei Ohtani has achieved milestones that most players can only dream of.

In Japan, he won the pitching Triple Crown and helped lead the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters to a championship. After moving to Major League Baseball, he captured the American League Rookie of the Year Award in his very first season.

Yet even in moments of celebration, Ohtani’s reactions have often been calm and understated.

He rarely appears overly attached to records such as milestone home runs, win totals, or historical achievements as a Japanese player in Major League Baseball.

The reason lies in how he thinks about goals.

For Ohtani, goals are not final destinations.

They are simply stepping stones.

When he first joined Little League in the second grade, his initial goal was simple: to play in games.

Once that seemed possible, his goal changed to batting fourth in the lineup.

When batting fourth felt within reach, he began aiming to become the team’s ace pitcher.

Later, as he started thinking about professional baseball, his goal evolved again. By his third year of high school, he wanted to become one of the top thirty players in the country, good enough to be selected in the draft.

Even then, the goals continued moving forward.

When the possibility of being drafted became real, he began setting targets for his first professional season, such as how many games he wanted to win.

In other words, the moment one goal came within reach, another appeared further ahead.

For Ohtani, success never meant stopping to admire what had already been accomplished.

Because the next goal was always waiting.

As someone who dreams of becoming the best baseball player in the world, the finish line is never fixed.

It simply keeps moving forward.

Source

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

Kadokawa Special Edition: Shohei Ohtani Feature, p.180