One of Shohei Ohtani’s greatest charms is the way he seems to genuinely enjoy baseball, even while competing at the highest possible level.

Of course, he hates losing.
And when his team struggles or results do not come, the pressure and frustration must be enormous.

Yet even then, he rarely loses his smile or his calm, respectful demeanor — one of the reasons so many fans admire him around the world.

Still, Ohtani has admitted that stress affects him deeply at times.

According to him, when he is struggling during the season, he often has unpleasant dreams related to baseball.

The dream he sees most often goes something like this:

He hits a clean single to right field, but when he tries to run to first base, it feels as though he is moving through water. No matter how hard he tries, his legs will not move forward, and he is thrown out at first base.

Ohtani says he tends to have this dream specifically during periods when results are not going his way.

That alone reveals how seriously he feels the pressure of performance.

And yet, he still says this:

“When I’m not getting good results, I definitely feel mental stress. But I think feeling stress because of baseball is actually one of the great things about it. There aren’t many jobs where every single day you get clear results and can think, ‘That was good’ or ‘That was bad.’ That’s what makes it fun — and also what makes it tough.”

Living under constant expectations and pressure would overwhelm many people.

But Ohtani sees that pressure itself as proof that he is fully alive inside the game he loves.

That mindset is one of the reasons he continues to thrive at the highest level.

Source

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

Number 1040, p.9