Editor’s Note: This story is from the pages of Dodger Insider magazine, 2024 Volume 11. Magazines are available at entry at parking stands at Dodger Stadium.

by Cary Osborne

Before his left foot stepped on second base, the stadium lights began to flicker and the opening notes of Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” began to play. It’s a sight he’s now accustomed to seeing and a song he’s grown to become familiar with.

The tandem of light and sound signifying a Dodger win is something that never grows old, though.

This time, Shohei Ohtani pulled the lever to activate both.

He swung his lumber and sent a baseball over an outfield wall for the 40th time this season. His legs, the same legs that earlier guided him to his 40th stolen base of the season, took him on a 360-feet celebration around the basepaths at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 23 with his walk-off grand slam.

And the Dodger fans chanted and cheered for the first 40/40 player in franchise history.

This is the reason he came here — to win.

It was Ohtani’s stated purpose when he put pen to historic contract and made it official with his looping signature.

Victory is a comforting feeling and he has won more times in a regular season than in any season in his seven-year Major League career. And he will play in the postseason for the first time in his career.

Shohei Ohtani is enjoying being a Dodger.

“The atmosphere here at Dodger Stadium — it’s obviously a historic stadium. And the atmosphere here, it’s different. It feels fresh,” Ohtani says. “It’s just kind of a different level. So it is a refreshing feeling when I do go out there and play here.”

That is his favorite thing about being a Dodger, he says.

Ohtani reached the 40/40 milestone on Aug. 23 with a walk-off grand slam. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)

In his first season as a Dodger, he has upped the amplification at the stadium and pumped more energy into an already wired fanbase. Expectations couldn’t be any higher for the two-way player who has been described by teammates, coaches and the industry as a once-in-a-lifetime talent.

The incredible thing is the two-time American League Most Valuable Player has actually exceeded the expectations.

Ohtani kept going after 40/40. With a historic performance on Sept. 19 in Miami, where he went 6-for-6 with three home runs, two stolen bases and 10 RBI, Ohtani reached 50 home runs and 50 steals to become the first 50/50 player in Major League history. He also passed Shawn Green’s Dodger franchise record of 49 home runs, set in 2001.

“I think we’ve said everything we can since he’s been through this league about what an amazing player he is,” says eight-time All-Star Freddie Freeman. “But when you come here you just never know how the first year is going to go on any team. Sometimes you just got to step back and just appreciate a player like this.”

Ohtani didn’t know either.

His thought, even though he had already become a historic Major League figure with his hitting and pitching accomplishments and accolades in six years with the Angels, was to consider himself like a rookie in 2024.

“We do have some young guys but I do feel like I’m not necessarily that veteran,” he says. “I’m almost kind of on the lower level — like a rookie pressure guy.”

However, no rookie and few players have ever been the attention magnet that Ohtani is.

Hundreds of media members attended Ohtani’s introductory press conference at Dodger Stadium on Dec. 14. He was enveloped by media on his first day as a Dodger in Spring Training. Camera people have rushed to photograph his every action on a baseball field and literally run to find the optimum spot to capture it. He is so famous that his dog, Decoy, is famous.

Ohtani with his dog Decoy on Aug. 28. (Carrie Giordano/Los Angeles Dodgers)

And yet, with all the scrutiny, he had one of the greatest offensive seasons in Dodger history.

Ohtani broke single-season franchise home run and extra-base hit records and will be a leading candidate for the National League Most Valuable Player award a season after winning it in the American League.

“I guess I’m good at compartmentalizing,” Ohtani says of the outside attention. “When I come to the clubhouse, obviously I focus on baseball.

“When I do have an obligation, (such as a) media obligation, I’ll come in, focus on that, just do that and then we’ll move on, and I’ll switch back to baseball. Even when I go home, I go home and I don’t think about baseball. I just relax. I turn that switch off.”

Ohtani’s focus and discipline are becoming as legendary as his achievements. But those achievements are what have produced awe for so many, including his teammates.

Austin Barnes had just hit his first home run of the season on July 21. Typically, he likes to take a seat on the bench by the railing of the Dodger dugout to watch Ohtani hit. But on this occasion, with him batting ninth and Ohtani first, Barnes had to put his catcher’s equipment on.

He was seated in the dugout buckling his catcher’s equipment with the bench in front of him blocking his view. He heard an explosion and a baseball soar.

The ball nearly cleared the roof at Dodger Stadium in right-center field. It split the two posts that hold a Daiso advertisement and had so much velocity that it landed on the concourse behind the Right Field Pavilion. The ball left the bat with a 116.7-mph exit velocity and traveled 473 feet. It is the second-longest home run hit at Dodger Stadium in the Statcast Era (since 2015) behind Giancarlo Stanton’s 475-foot homer on May 12, 2015.

“You haven’t really seen something like Ohtani before,” Barnes says. “He hits the ball so hard. I like seeing his at-bats. I understand why people come to the park and want to see him. He’s been fun to watch.”

(Carrie Giordano/Los Angeles Dodgers)

Ohtani owned two of the five longest homers by a Major Leaguer this season — the 473-foot one and his 476-footer in Colorado on June 18 that cleared the pine trees in center field.

Ohtani now owns the hardest-hit ball by a Dodger in the Statcast Era with his 119.2-mph single in Toronto on April 27. He also now owns the top nine hardest-hit balls by a Dodger in the era and 14 of the top 15.

“This is my job. It’s my profession. So, I have to kind of hit the ball hard,” Ohtani says. “But at the same time, there’s no explaining (the feeling) when you do get a hold of one and you barrel one up and hit it deep. If anything, if I’m helping the team win and when I’m rounding the bases and the fans are going crazy, that’s obviously all included in that feeling of any home run. So it feels great.”

Ohtani says for all his majestic home runs and 100-mile-per-hour hits, he marvels at his teammates’ talents.

“Every player has their specialty or their special characteristics. What makes him a high level of professional,” he says. “I have so much respect for them. For me, I like to play at the highest level I can, and I believe all my teammates do the same thing. That’s kind of the way I approach things.”

Ohtani has been playing at a level during his career that once seemed unimaginable. He hasn’t thrown a pitch in a Major League game this season, and he won’t as he continues to rehab from offseason elbow surgery.

He misses it, he says.

So as a designated hitter, in his first year as a Dodger, he focused on making the best impact he could possibly make from the batter’s box and on the basepaths.

He’s done it over the long haul and in moments: Winning National League Player of the Week awards three times. Homering on Japanese Heritage Night at Dodger Stadium on July 2. Homering in the All-Star Game in Arlington on July 16. Hitting a grand slam to make him a 40/40 man. Going 6-for-6 with three home runs in Miami to become the first MLB 50/50 player.

Ohtani became the only member of the 50/50 club in Miami on Sept. 19. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)

“Sho, he is very storybook,” says manager Dave Roberts. “It seems like whenever there’s anticipation for something to happen, it happens. Guys like that are like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods.”

And another name that has followed him during his career.

Babe Ruth.

This year, Ohtani’s first as a Dodger, has only added to the legend and brought greater comparison to the player many regard as the most legendary figure in baseball history.

Instead, Ohtani is focused on enjoying this season and what may come in the postseason.

And also being Shohei Ohtani.

“It’s not like I want people to revere me as the next Babe Ruth or the best player ever,” Ohtani says. “Obviously, as I play and continue to play this game, there are certain records that I break. But that doesn’t change the respect that I have for the players who had those records. And I always have respect and admiration for all these players that I’ve played with and these records I’m chasing. And I do hope to continue to perform at a high level where the younger players will kind of look at me the same way and possibly say, ‘I want to try get up to his level.’”

(Juan Ocampo/Los Angeles Dodgers)