Sho-Time

"“Shohei is unique, obviously, someone we have never seen before. What he does and how he does it so easily is just different. But such a big part of who he is […is his] pure joy for the game and the competition. […] With all of the success he’s had, he still has that joy. […] That’s Shohei: always competing and having fun doing it.” —from the foreword by Joe Maddon, World Series champion and former Los Angeles Angels Manager  “Shohei Ohtani was the biggest story of the 2021 season, and perhaps any season. In Sho-Time, Jeff Fletcher masterfully chronicles not only what Ohtani accomplished in ‘21, but also provides the full context to his achievements. From Ohtani’s origin story in Japan to his recruitment by the Angels, his injury-marred 2019 and ‘20 seasons to his place in history next to Babe Ruth, Fletcher’s book is the definitive look at Ohtani’s two-way majesty.”  —Ken Rosenthal, Senior Writer at The Athletic    “Historians will be talking about Shohei Ohtani's 2021 season for decades, and thankfully the baseball gods arranged for Jeff Fletcher to be there to cover baseball's best two-way player ever in the midst of a pandemic, to bear witness and mine details and write with grace about the sport's most incredible individual performance.”   —Buster Olney, ESPN    “Shohei Ohtani is a singular phenomenon in baseball, and there’s nobody better to tell his story than Jeff Fletcher. Sho-Time is the essential portrait of baseball’s most captivating player, chronicling Ohtani’s rise from child prodigy in the snowy Iwate Prefecture to two-way MVP sensation under the bright lights of Major League Baseball. Fletcher goes beyond the carefully scripted press conferences, revealing in vivid detail the challenges and triumphs of a baseball journey like no other.”  —Tyler Kepner, The New York Times    “OK, I’ll admit it. I’m obsessed with Shohei Ohtani. I missed out on watching that Babe Ruth guy, but I feel lucky to have watched this guy. I even thought I knew a lot about him until I opened my copy of Jeff Fletcher’s brilliant new book. Sho-Time taught me so much I didn’t know about the most unique baseball player of our lifetimes. From the moment I read that phrase, ‘10-tool player,’ I was hooked!”  —Jayson Stark, The Athletic    “This is one the best baseball books ever published relevant to Japan-U.S. relations. Jeff Fletcher is the most experienced of the Angels beat writers, and usually the first one to ask Shohei Ohtani questions after the game. I admire the way he has exchanged information with Japanese writers for four years. This book is the fruit of his efforts. I always follow Jeff’s work in order to find new information relevant to Ohtani or Major League Baseball.”  —Hideki Okuda, Sports Nippon    ""I thought I knew everything about Shohei Ohtani because I had seen all of his games and interviewed him for the first time in Tempe in 2018, but I didn’t quite know the extent of everything he did to redesign himself on the physical and mental side until after I read Sho-Time. I really appreciated learning about Ohtani’s dedication to be the best, starting from his days in Japan. I realized how much it took for him to get to this point, to have the best year in baseball history.”  —Mark Gubicza, Angels television analyst   "