Reputation is unstable.
A player praised one season can be dismissed the next. An athlete overlooked for years can suddenly be labeled a genius after one breakthrough performance.
Public evaluation is fluid. It rises and falls with headlines.
In November 2015, Shohei Ohtani dominated the Premier 12 tournament. Across 13 innings, he allowed no runs and was named to the tournament’s Best Nine while leading in ERA. Major League scouts were watching closely.
His stock surged.
When asked about the growing praise from MLB scouts, Ohtani responded calmly:
“Evaluations change depending on the moment, so they’re unreliable. Of course I’m happy to receive that kind of recognition right now. But I don’t even know what direction I’ll go in from here. I can’t celebrate something that unstable.”
He understood something many athletes learn too late:
Praise is temporary.
Criticism is temporary.
Growth is not.
If you celebrate every rise in opinion, you must also suffer every drop.
Ohtani chooses neither.
He accepts recognition with gratitude — but does not anchor his identity to it.
True evaluation, in his mind, is built over time.
And it begins from within.
Source
This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.
Chasing Shohei Ohtani: A Beat Reporter’s 10-Year Chronicle, p.66