In team sports such as baseball or soccer, the environment surrounding a player can greatly influence their career.

Because teams have managers and coaches, decisions about who plays and who does not are often affected by coaching philosophy, team strategy, or even personal preference.

That is why athletes sometimes say that the real goal is to become “a player the coach cannot afford to leave out.”

Instead of complaining about playing time, the focus should be on becoming so valuable that any coach would naturally want to use you.

Shohei Ohtani understands how much environment can shape an athlete’s career.

He has often reflected that if the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters had not suggested the idea of playing both pitcher and hitter, his life might have taken a completely different path.

At the same time, Ohtani believes that players cannot simply wait for the right environment to appear.

If they want the freedom to pursue their goals, they must work hard enough to create opportunities for themselves.

In 2017, Ohtani spoke about the kind of player he hoped to become.

Rather than searching for the perfect situation, he wanted to grow into someone that every team would want.

Years later, after the 2023 MLB season, Ohtani became a free agent and proved that he had achieved exactly that.

Regardless of financial constraints, there was hardly a team in baseball that would not have wanted him on their roster.

In many ways, that reality reflected the goal Ohtani had set for himself years earlier.

For him, the best environment is not something given.

It is something a player earns by becoming indispensable.

Source

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

KADOKAWA Special Edition: Shohei Ohtani, p.181