The Los Angeles Angels were preparing for a series against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in May 2018, Shohei Ohtani’s first year in MLB, when Jose Mota, a former major leaguer and longtime member of the broadcast crew, went to have a word with his producers.
“I said listen, I don’t know if you guys are going to be at lunch when Shohei is hitting BP, but we need to film that,” Mota told The Japan Times. “We need to have that on tape.”
It was a good thing they listened. In scenes reminiscent of the 2016 afternoon when he left the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in awe during batting practice at Tokyo Dome — hitting the scoreboard will do that — Ohtani put on a show. He hit one ball so hard, according to MLB.com, it left a mark on a railing in the upper deck.
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