📍Ōshū, Iwate, Japan
1994 – 2012“Shohei Ohtani grew up in Mizusawa, now part of the city of Ōshū, a quiet farming town of rice fields and cold, snowy winters in Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan. He was the youngest of three children in a sporty family: his father, Toru, worked at a Mitsubishi plant and had played amateur baseball in the corporate leagues, and his mother, Kayoko, had been a competitive badminton player. As a small boy he swam for years and played badminton with his mother, but baseball soon took over. His father coached his Little League team and, rather than shouting at him, kept a notebook with his son, writing down advice and lessons after each game for Shohei to read and reply to. The family home was modest, and the long Iwate winters meant training indoors or in the snow. Shohei grew tall quickly, and his talent showed early. At Hanamaki Higashi High School in Iwate, which had produced the pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, he famously drew up a goal chart in the shape of a mandala, with his dream of becoming the top draft pick at the centre and qualities such as character, luck and kindness to others around it. In his final year he threw a 160 km/h fastball. He joined the Nippon-Ham Fighters, then moved to Major League Baseball, where he became the first true two-way star in a century. He has never forgotten Iwate: in 2023 he gave baseball gloves to every elementary school in Japan, hoping children would grow up playing the game he loved.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
🛰️ Satellite view · © Google