Many people look at Shohei Ohtani today and call him the best baseball player in the world.
But his path before turning professional was far from glamorous.

Ohtani was known during his Little League years, but mostly within Iwate and the Tohoku region.
He never won a national championship, nor did he stand at the top of a world tournament.

When he entered high school, he weighed just over 60 kilograms.
Although he appeared at Koshien twice, both runs ended in first-round losses.
In his final summer of high school, he was selected for Japan’s U-18 national team, but the team finished sixth.

In that sense, his background was very different from players who became national stars at an early age.
So how did he become the player he is today?

According to Ohtani, what matters most is not where you start, but how much you can still grow.
That potential — what lies ahead — can change greatly depending on training, nutrition, and mindset.

When people see someone successful, they tend to focus only on the present version.
Looking at Ohtani now, it may seem unreachable.
But by understanding how much work it took for him to get here,
it becomes clear that his path was built step by step — not given from the start.

Source

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

Shohei Ohtani: Baseball Soaring Years I – Japan 2013–2018, p.181