Its not about him being a bigger deal or better. He is number 1 for other reasons. He broke the Japanese barrier that was set for the longest time in American baseball.
Dodgers opened their season playing the Padres in South Korea.
I think they played 2 games in March. Shohei was the main reason.
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There were other players from Japan before him. I forget who but I know he wasn’t the first
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Ichiro came to MLB fairly late in his career compared to other guys. He was amazing but not on Ohtani level.
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Time will tell.
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