When Shohei Ohtani was playing as a two-way player in Japan, he was often asked the same question.

Which is harder—pitching or hitting?

Or more specifically, what makes doing both so difficult?

At the high school level in Japan, it is not unusual to see a player who is both the team’s ace pitcher and cleanup hitter. But in professional baseball, almost no one attempts to do both roles.

That is precisely why Ohtani’s career drew so much attention.

By his second season with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, he had already achieved something extraordinary: double-digit wins as a pitcher and double-digit home runs as a hitter in the same season.

Naturally, people wanted to know how he viewed the difficulty of the two roles.

Ohtani’s answer was surprisingly analytical.

Pitchers, he explained, have the advantage of initiating the action. They decide what pitch to throw, where to locate it, and when to attack the strike zone.

In that sense, pitchers control the flow of the game.

Hitters, on the other hand, must react.

When a hitter is struggling, pitchers tend to attack the corners more aggressively. Close pitches may be called strikes. And suddenly the hitter finds himself responding to circumstances rather than dictating them.

That is what Ohtani meant by the “difficulty of being reactive.”

At the same time, Ohtani never viewed this as an excuse.

Whether pitching or hitting, he believes that players must strive to remain proactive rather than passive.

Even in situations that seem reactive, the best competitors find ways to take control.

For Ohtani, that mindset is essential—no matter which side of the game he is playing.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese magazine and is not currently available in English.

Number Magazine 881, p.18