Shohei Ohtani’s rookie season with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters was experimental.

As a pitcher, he appeared in 13 games and won three.
As a hitter, he played 77 games, batting .238 with three home runs.

Everyone recognized his potential. The challenge was figuring out how to use it.

The first half of the season was uneven. Adjusting to professional pitching, professional mounds, and balancing dual training routines took time. But by the second half, something began to click.

“I felt like it was just getting started,” Ohtani later reflected.

Despite external pressure to choose one path, he never seriously considered narrowing his role.

“If I were going to choose just one, I wouldn’t have joined the Fighters. I decided to do both. That’s why I’m here.”

So what was he aiming for?

“If you ask what kind of player I want to become — someone who plays every day, delivers in the biggest moments, and never loses the games entrusted to him. Imagining myself as the pillar of the team is very important.”

This was not vague ambition.

It was a constructed self-image.

Ohtani was not just training mechanics.

He was training identity.

Before he became “the ace and the cleanup hitter,” he imagined being one.

For him, visualization was not fantasy — it was direction.

Source

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

Shohei Ohtani: Baseball Chronicle I (Japan Edition 2013–2018), p.80