SAPPORO, Japan — Ever since Shohei Ohtani of Japan began capturing the attention of baseball fans in the United States, he has elicited comparisons to Babe Ruth, the larger-than-life slugger who strode across the American landscape nearly a century ago.
And why not? Ruth, in the early part of his major league career, was a dominant pitcher with the Boston Red Sox before evolving into an everyday presence in the Yankees’ outfield. No one since then has really done anything like that in the major leagues. Ohtani, 23, meanwhile, has both pitched and hit with distinction as a member of the Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball.