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There was a considerable amount of hype surrounding Japanese MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani when he first burst onto the scene in 2018 for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
After a stellar career in Japan, Ohtani was being billed as a bona fide two-way baseball star thanks to his preternatural hitting and excellent pitching prowess.
Not unlike baseball legend Babe Ruth, Ohtani’s versatility was a huge part of his selling point.
Even given the precocious start to his MLB career that he had in Anaheim, many onlookers were skeptical that there was any way Ohtani would be able to live up to the lavish 10-year, $700 million free agent contract he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in December 2023.
While monetary value is certainly subjective, after Ohtani’s latest statistical feat, it’s clear he’s providing incredibly valuable in the nascent years of his megadeal.
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The Dodgers beat the Miami Marlins on Thursday and had plenty to celebrate based on the final score alone.
The playoff-bound Dodgers went to Miami and thrashed the Marlins 20-4, the sort of final score that means the winning team really only had to play about half the game seriously.
While the big win is cause for celebration alone, the much bigger story to emerge from the Thursday afternoon game was that Ohtani created a statistical club unto himself in the annals of professional baseball history.
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And that’s because, as ESPN and others have noted, Ohtani’s performance during the lopsided win made him the first, only, and last player to have hit 50 home runs and stolen 50 bases in a single season.
Technically, Ohtani is in the 51/51 club, as he ended Thursday’s game with 51 total home runs and 51 total stolen bases on the season.
He entered with 48 home runs, before belting three through the course of the Marlins game.
Ohtani also nabbed stolen bases No. 50 and No. 51 during the course of the game.
Despite Ohtani’s clear brilliance and talent, the MLB superstar actually has the ignominious achievement of being the active player with the most MLB games played without a playoff appearance. That tally sits at 866, but the Dodgers are locks to make the MLB playoffs this year.
While Ohtani’s 50/50 season is incredible enough on its own (given how long baseball has been around, it’s always rare to see any record felled), it’s especially impressive given that that the two-way star was embroiled in an ugly gambling and fraud scandal involving his then-translator earlier this year.
According to CNN, a pair of MLB stars have come close to the 50/50 mark.
In 2023, the incredibly speedy Ronald Acuña Jr. stole 73 bases and hit 41 home runs for the Atlanta Braves.
Before that, you’d have to go all the way back to 1998, when Alex Rodriguez — then a member of the Seattle Mariners — belted 42 home runs and stole 46 bases.
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