For Shohei Ohtani, reaching and winning the World Series had been a dream since his high school days.

That dream was one of the reasons he crossed the Pacific and joined the Los Angeles Angels at age 23. Yet despite his extraordinary individual success, the Angels never reached the postseason during his six seasons with the club.

The Los Angeles Dodgers faced a different challenge. They consistently won their division but had suffered the disappointment of falling short in the postseason, failing to reach the National League Championship Series in consecutive years. For an organization with championship expectations, simply reaching October was not enough. The goal was to win the World Series.

That is why Ohtani’s signing was viewed as more than the addition of a superstar. The Dodgers brought him in to help carry the team through the postseason and ultimately to a championship.

The expectations and pressure surrounding him were enormous.

Yet Ohtani seemed to embrace them.

As the season progressed, he remarked:

“I think it’ll become even more fun as we get into the second half of the season.”

Rather than fearing the pressure, he appeared energized by it.

The result was a historic season. Ohtani helped lead the Dodgers to a division title, a National League pennant, and eventually a World Series showdown against the storied New York Yankees.

Standing on baseball’s biggest stage, he reflected on the journey that had brought him there:

“I’ve finally made it to this stage. From the moment I signed that contract, I pictured myself being here.”

Those words reveal something important about Ohtani’s mindset.

The World Series was not merely a hope. It was a destination he had envisioned long before he arrived.

For years, he pursued a dream that remained just out of reach. When he finally stepped onto the World Series stage, he was not experiencing something unimaginable.

He was living a picture he had already seen in his mind.

Source

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

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