Hiromitsu Ochiai, the only player in Japanese professional baseball history to win the Triple Crown three times as a hitter, entered the league relatively late at the age of 25.

Because of that, he believed it would be difficult to rank at the top in career totals such as home runs or hits.

So he asked himself:

“What can I achieve that will leave my name in history?”

His answer was to pursue something no one else had done—
winning the Triple Crown three times.

Shohei Ohtani, on the other hand, turned professional immediately after graduating from high school and moved to Major League Baseball at the age of 23.

However, as a two-way player, there has always been doubt about whether he could reach traditional milestones—such as 200 career wins as a pitcher or 2,000 hits as a batter—benchmarks often associated with entry into Japan’s prestigious Meikyukai (Golden Players Club).

Naturally, achieving such totals is far more difficult when splitting time between pitching and hitting.

And yet, Ohtani has already accomplished feats no one else has—
including the historic “50–50” season and multiple seasons with double-digit wins and double-digit home runs across Japan and the U.S.

When asked about what kind of career totals he aims for, Ohtani does not point to specific numbers.

Instead, he simply says:

“I won’t know until it’s all over.”

He is not known for being obsessed with records or statistics.

For Ohtani, numbers are something to reflect on after his career—
whether with satisfaction or regret.

What truly matters to him is something much simpler:

to give everything he has,
year after year.

Source

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

Number 1040, p.15