PHOENIX — Shohei Ohtani wants to win the World Series.
He wants to win the World Baseball Classic.
He also wants to win his first Cy Young Award.
Ohtani was unusually open on Friday, the ordinarily guarded two-way star revealing his goals and offering insights into his mindset after throwing a 27-pitch bullpen session in the Dodgers’ first workout of the spring for pitchers and catchers.
What Ohtani said confirmed the depths of ambition long described by those close to him.
Ohtani, 31, has won four MVP awards, two World Series and a WBC, but he said he wants more. And more. And more.
“I think that when you’re satisfied, it’s time to finish,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “I don’t feel that way at this point. The opposite way of saying it is that I think I should quit when I do.”
There aren’t many unchecked boxes in his career to-do list, but he said there’s value in checking the same box multiple times.
“Whether it’s winning the World Series or winning the WBC or being the MVP there, it’s not enough to do it once,” Ohtani said. “When you continue to do that, I think that’s when you’re viewed as a first-class player for the first time. Doing it twice is better than doing it once, and doing it three times is better than doing it twice.”
Nevermind that Ohtani proved he was a first-class player five years ago when he won his first MVP award with the Angels. He has already been at Camelback Ranch for close to two weeks. The bullpen session he threw on Friday was his third of the spring.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
