Shohei Ohtani has begun the process of selecting his new MLB home, and Padres fans have good reason to be hopeful this holiday season:
For the casual baseball fan, all this hub-bub over a Japanese player may seem overblown. Hideo Nomo broke into the league in 1995 and has been followed by over two dozen pitchers, many of whom have had great success in MLB. Ichiro Suzuki broke onto the scene in 2001 and is now nearing the end of a first-ballot Hall of Fame career. So what’s so special about Shohei Ohtani that makes him the talk of the sport?