Old Man Bill James Couldn’t Have Been More Wrong About Shohei Ohtani With This Freezing Cold Take From 2019

Oh Billy James, guy just can’t get anything right can he? A few weeks back I blogged that he had this amazing idea to save baseball and it was just him saying a batter should have to wear any equipment he wears during the at-bat around the bases. Just absolutely groundbreaking stuff from our guy Bill. He unleashed this bad boy back in 2019 the year after Ohtani won Rookie Of The Year and was only hitting due to Tommy John back in 2018. Because of all the comparisons to Babe Ruth that surrounded Ohtani he decided to call the fight barely even a year and a half into his career.

All Ohtani did in 2019 was hit .286 with 18 home runs, 62 RBIs, 20 doubles, 12 stolen bases, an OBP of .343 and play in 106 games before undergoing knee surgery. Overall it’s a pretty good year. The fact that in the middle of this season, again the year AFTER he won Rookie Of The Year, Bill James was ready to move on from Ohtani is laughable. He was ready to put the fork in him because of the comparisons to Babe Ruth and because he had Tommy John. Bill James sounds like such an idiot when you go back and see this quote which is why I love that it is going viral again.

He couldn’t have been more wrong, like he’s so wrong. The amount of excitement surrounding Ohtani is like crazy. It’s been a long time since we have seen a player like him. I wake up every morning to see what new thing Ohtani has done that hasn’t been done in like 89 years or whatever, by far the most electric and exciting player in baseball. Bill wanted him DONE in 2019 and now all he’s doing is leading baseball in home runs, going to the All Star Game, doing the Home Run Derby, and pitching to a 2.58 ERA, good call Bill! And he was ready to call it 140 games into his career. HA. Bill James baby, keep the hits coming!