Finally, it’s time we talk about Shohei Ohtani. In data science, there is one simple and clear term that describes someone like him: outlier. Normally, my work in the Truth Review requires outliers to be removed. It does not bring any particular value and simply messes up the entire dataset.
Ohtani is the prime example of a glitch in the matrix. Between 2021 and 2023, there was one player sitting alone on the top right corner of the axis chart for Pitching (x-axis) vs. Hitting Quality (y-axis). There are few to none who do not sit on either the x-axis or the y-axis, meaning Ohtani’s records were and probably will be untouchable for the rest of history.
The narrative isn’t about how good he is. The story is about the unobtainable efficiency Ohtani brings to the mound and bat at the same time. For most of its existence, baseball strictly separated pitching and hitting. Not only were each of them specialized in their own way, but it was also believed that it was impossible to excel at both. A famous example is the 10,000-hour rule, which implied you couldn’t master pitching and hitting at the same time. Ohtani is the human proof of how this
When mentoring some of the students I work with at the Truth Review and teaching students at a school, I use Ohtani as my counterargument for anyone who says it is inefficient to practice many things at once.
It isn’t possible to excel at STEM and Writing (Look at Ohtani).
Athletes can’t get good grades and nerds can’t play sports (Look at Ohtani).
Ohtani’s Statcast page is my favorite out of all players because it is unique, not only in how everything is red (meaning he is included in the top percentile), but because he has two different sections that represent him: pitching and hitting. Top 1% in Exit Velocity. Top 10% in Strikeout Rate. Most Home-Runs. Most Extra-Base Hits. Traditional data analysis and Sabermetrics have told us that someone like Ohtani can’t exist. Now the story is different thanks to him.
Ohtani’s role in expanding the concept of what a baseball player can do is exactly what I am looking to do through my work with the Truth Review and beyond. Whether it’s education for the underprivileged, fact-checking in the era of unlimited information, or the analysis of Kershaw’s slider, I want to expand horizons for human understanding rather than limit it. Just like my memory back in Chapel Hill of a baseball flying over the fence into the distance, the story is still in the air traveling to distances impossible to imagine.