Shohei Ohtani is somehow better than the best thing that has ever happened to baseball.

I mean it.

We all knew that he was going to be great. We hoped he would stay great for us long enough to admire — more than a shooting star we would tell our kids about.

I can not believe we are getting even more than we thought we would.

Certainly, being the first player in MLB history to rack up 50 homers and 50 steals is the same season will be what we always remember about Ohtani 2024. I just also hope that, when we tell the story of this record-breaking feat, we also continue to include the unreal way that he reached the 50/50 mark — a 6-for-6 night, with three dingers, two stolen bases, 10 RBI and four runs scored.

A few years ago, living in Massachusetts, I took a day from work to bring my two sons to Fenway Park to see Ohtani pitch against the Red Sox. I knew it was a chance for them to gather a core memory of going to Fenway Park to see “some guy” their dad insisted they needed to see. I hoped it would grow into more than that, but history has a way of shaking that stuff out.

I spent-up for a pair of tickets that were right along the barrier in the left field corner, where my sons could reach out and touch the Green Monster. I was really pushing hard for some big time Dad Points.

A pair of rain delays meant that Ohtani’s pitching performance was cut short, but it did not matter to us. In fact, my boys still talk about how much fun it was watching Shohei warm up in center field before the game, as well as the anticipation we all experienced during each of the weather delays, when your boy refilled his Sam Adams, and the kids stocked up on Fenway Franks.

Since then, my kids speak of that game often. They are not, by any measure, baseball fans. But we do share big Ohtani news with one another, and they alway ask if I pulled an Ohtani when I buy some baseball cards. Shohei has become a part of the way we relate to one another.

And that feels like beautiful validation.

All of this is to say that we are awfully lucky to be living in the age of Shohei. He is, truly, a once in a generation figure (maybe even more rare than that), and the type of athlete that you scheme family trips to the ball park around.

(Believe me: I’ll be scouring the Royals and Cardinals 2025 schedules as soon they are available. And I believe you should do the same. See him in person. Bring the people you love with you. We only get these opportunities a precious few times, and Shohei Ohtani is, most definitely, that opportunity.)

Perhaps even more importantly, Shohei is the perfect athlete to uplift the entire sport of baseball, hopefully raising it back into a more central place in the eye of the American sports public. And if my tea leaves are telling me what I think they are, it might be right in time for the Royals to bask in some of that added national glow.