Why Bok coach Rassie Erasmus loves himself a ‘Shohei Ohtani?’

BASEBALL is one of many American sporting codes that requires specialists in each position rather than players who can fulfil multiple roles.

- JOHN GOLIATH

You're basically pigeonholed early on - pitchers pitch, hitters hit, and catchers ... well, you get the idea. But then Shohei Ohtani came along and blew baseball fans’ collective minds.

Before reading this column, you may not have heard of the sport's latest phenomenon. I certainly didn’t know this bra from a bar of soap before he started popping up on my TikTok algorithm, with clips of his unbelievable performances with both bat and ball.

Ohtani is Major League Baseball’s two-way marvel. His 160km/h fastballs and towering home runs belong to different universes of skill, yet he merges them seamlessly, night after night. The Japanese superstar doesn't just play baseball — he bends its rules.

For generations, the idea of a two-way player was seen as a romantic relic from baseball's early days, long before the sport's evolution into a system of hyper-specialisation. But Ohtani has shattered that orthodoxy, forcing coaches, analysts and opponents to rethink what one player can contribute.