Opinion | Shohei Ohtani has had the greatest baseball season of all time, but Aaron Judge’s Yankee ties might decide MVP argument
- Not since Babe Ruth has a player dominated the game as a pitcher and a batter, but Ohtani can do it all
- Judge meanwhile has broken Roger Maris’ American League record with 62 homers this season
They don’t really get it in Japan. They can’t seem to understand how their prodigal son, who just finished arguably the greatest season in the history of major league baseball, may no longer be the most valuable player in his respective league.
In fact, when all the MVP votes are counted in the American League there is a pretty good chance that the pride of Oshu City, Los Angeles Angels unicorn Shohei Ohtani, will be a distant second to New York Yankees slugging behemoth Aaron Judge.
For all his greatness, Ohtani’s team finished well out of a playoff spot while Judge’s historical season, in which he hit 62 home runs to break the 61-year-old American League record of 61, has been the overwhelming impetus behind the Yankee’s first place finish.
I don’t have an MVP vote, however if I did it would be Ohtani-san all day, every day
“It’s not Ohtani-san’s fault that the Angels are a weak team,” said Tokyo native and baseball fanatic Yoshikazu Ozawa. “It’s not his fault that he doesn’t play in New York for the Yankees either.”
No, it certainly is not Ohtani’s fault that New York City always creates disproportionate hype. But while it is a very loud place full of very loud people, nothing is louder in the Big Apple right now than the bat of Judge. Beyond the home runs, he is having one of the greatest offensive seasons’ ever.
Winning MVP is completely subjective and a very nice distinction. Voted on by 30 baseball writers, it often inspires endless debate. It is not, however, the ultimate arbiter of peerless greatness.
While there are a number of elements that do contribute to baseball greatness, distil the game into its purest form and two essential functions emerge: pitching and hitting.
