Play ball!!

1 Inning - Baseball Instead of a Game, a Special Childhood

What geniuses have in common: Everything starts with the basics.
The first home run was called off, a special push to save the ball.
8 Extraordinary Teachings from Ordinary Parents

2nd Inning - Making the Impossible Possible, Dreaming of Being the Best in the World

Turning a baseball wasteland into a baseball mecca
Overcome the wall of rivals and blossom your talents
A genius who works hard and turns a crisis into an opportunity

3 Innings - A Lifetime Teacher, a High School Teacher Who Changed My Destiny

4 Lessons from Manager Sasaki on Cleaning the Toilet for Pitchers
The Miraculous Mandala Chart, Born from the Director's Failed Experience
After my dream was dashed, I quietly pulled out weeds.

4 Innings - Entering the Pro Baseball League, the Beginning of a New Edo Style

Are dreams truly just dreams? Supreme Master Kuriyama, Supreme Student Otani
Why Coach Kuriyama Banned Full-Speed ​​Running
A player notices the referee's injury and greets him by calling his name.

Five-inning major league challenge, the great baseball fool

Who is greater, Bass Ruth or Shohei Ohtani?
Top star who became friends with a ball boy
The glamorous streets of New York? For someone who only thinks about baseball.

The special quality of a six-inning baseball genius: the polite manners that are ingrained in him.

Shaking dirt off an opposing player is the most polite steal in the world.
Picking up trash is like picking up luck
A sincere apology creates magic.

The world's No. 1, a cartoon-like 7-inning hero of the WBC

No pride in front of the team, a bunt that surprised everyone
Respect for the Opponent: Why I Wear a Czech National Team Cap Instead of Japan
The Hidden Story of a Famous Speech That Will Be Memorized Forever

Beyond the eight-inning baseball player, why Ohtani is loved as a person.

For the team over the individual: A story about Ohtani's shift during high school.
A master of mimicry, always smiling and having a special sense of humor
365 days a year, words that Otani never uses

9 Innings Life is like Ohtani, to the second Ohtani

The thoughtful consideration of donating three gloves
The Secret of Reading That Made Otani a Great Man
Moments of Fate: Why You Can Trust Your Intuition

'Shohei Ohtani' analyzed through the eyes of a Korean baseball reporter who is well-versed in Japanese baseball!!

KBS Sports reporter Han Seong-yoon, known by the nickname "Baseball Boy," examines the growth process of "700 Million Dollar Man" Shohei Ohtani and presents the factors for his success. On the other hand, the book shows Ohtani's overall life, including his attitude and stance toward baseball, the teachings of his parents and teachers that made him who he is today, and his "friendship" with his teammates and other people around him. The entire book is organized into 9 chapters and 27 subheadings, like baseball, which starts with a play ball and ends with 27 outs in 9 innings.
As a reporter who has been interested in Japanese baseball for a long time, the author vividly and interestingly conveys hidden stories about Shohei Ohtani that have not yet been introduced in Korea, such as anecdotes about the umpires greeting him by name, stories from when he visited Korea to participate in the 2012 FIFA U-17 World Cup, the 'Ohtani Shift' that occurred during a game in high school, and Manager Sasaki's instructions to include the word 'luck' in the mandala chart.


The life story of Shohei Ohtani, who made the impossible possible!!

Looking at the trajectory of Shohei Ohtani's life that is known so far, we can see that he is making plans for his goal of playing baseball and is working towards achieving them.
The most important reason why so many people sympathize with Shohei Ohtani is that he challenged the stereotype that "two-swords are impossible in the pros," and in the process, he demonstrated the will to discard that stereotype, and above all, through this, he stood tall as a baseball player who surpassed his own limitations.
Also, since he was a high school student, he has been setting goals and working hard to achieve them by drawing mandala charts, and he has shown that he does his best even in small things, such as when he said that picking up trash at the baseball field was like "picking up luck that other people threw away."


This book provides a detailed account of Ohtani's childhood, high school years, and his rise to become one of the best players in Japanese professional baseball and the Major League.
And the 'rivals' and friends he met in the major leagues since his Little League days, and the teachings of his parents and his mentors, Shoji Asari, Hiroshi Sasaki, and Hideki Kuriyama, who helped Ohtani grow at important moments, are also well organized.
But did Shohei Ohtani become the "700 million dollar man" he is today solely through his innate talent for baseball, natural physical condition, and athletic ability? Of course not.
Shohei Ohtani's success was due to his natural talent, his diligence in setting goals from a young age and consistently pursuing them, his monk-like self-control, his passion for baseball, and the hard work behind it.
Ohtani walked his own path, and this may be the secret to his success in the competition in the world's best league, the Major League Baseball.


A story full of stories that are more comic-like than comics and more cinematic than movies.
The real story of Shohei Ohtani!!

CC Sabathia, a former New York Yankees ace who is considered a "living legend" and a pitcher with 251 wins in the Major League (ML), once said, "When I watch Ohtani, it feels like he's playing in 'Little League' (rather than the Major League)."
This was said with the intention that Ohtani was the greatest player in Major League history, but actually, watching Ohtani reminds me of the romance of 'Little League Baseball' from my childhood.
Watching Ohtani, who is called the "baseball monk," play baseball gives off the same pure passion as watching little league baseball.
Ohtani even created a romantic scene in the WBC final that surpassed the cartoon of a "closer in a dirt-covered uniform."
(Usually, pitchers' uniforms are clean.


However, Ohtani also played as a batter and slid onto the mound, so he appeared on the mound in a dirty uniform covered in dirt.) The ultimate example of 'romantic baseball' shown by Ohtani was when he gave three gloves to every elementary school in Japan. 'Two-way player' Ohtani left a message of "RESPECT" on his SNS for the Czech national baseball team, which is made up of 'two-job' baseball players, and followed the SNS of Kasumba Dennis, a baseball boy from Uganda, who dreams of becoming a professional baseball player, to support his dream.
In addition, Ohtani does his best for the fans who come to the stadium, and he greets the umpires by name and shares 'friendship' with the ball boys by high-fiving them.
If the Ohtani we see inside the stadium is 'surreal', the Ohtani we see outside the stadium can be said to be 'unreal'.


Shohei Ohtani, the 'man who came out of a comic book'!!

As is well known, Shohei Ohtani is currently the best pitcher and best hitter.
He is called a 'two-way player' or 'two-sword player' because he plays both as a pitcher and a batter.
When it comes to baseball, Ohtani's skill is surreal.
When he goes up to the mound, he throws fastballs exceeding 160 km/h, hits over 40 home runs at the plate, and even records over 20 stolen bases.
The player who achieved these records in one season is Shohei Ohtani.
That's why people call Ohtani the 'GOAT (Greatest Of All Time),' meaning the 'greatest player of all time,' and also the imaginary 'unicorn.'
The secret to why 29-year-old baseball player Shohei Ohtani is praised as the "greatest player in history" or a "unicorn" is, of course, his unparalleled skills.


Author Han Seong-yoon calls this Otani "a man who came out of a manga," and explains the reason by referring to the two main characters of Adachi Mitsuru's manga "H2," the fastball pitcher "Hiro" and the home run hitter "Hideo."
The manga features two main characters, Hiro and Hideo, who are baseball 'heroes' as their name suggests.
I guess this is because, even if it is a 'cartoon', it is unrealistic to have a character who is both a fastball pitcher and a home run hitter.
However, in reality, not in the manga, a character who combined Hiro and Hideo appeared, and that person was Shohei Ohtani.
In that sense, the 'manhwa-like man' that the author speaks of is not just an adjective, but can be said to be real.