Mark Gubicza has an idea and he’s the one to make it happen. As a pitcher in the 1980s and his 90s, Gubica was a teammate of Bo He Jackson of the Kansas City Royals. He currently works as an analyst on TV for Shohei Ohtani’s team in Los Angeles, where he calls the Angels game. His dream pre-game was to bring the two players together.
“Bo knows Sho,” Gubicza said this week in the Angels’ dugout at Yankee Stadium. “I think we can finally have it this year.”
Angels pitching and hitting sensation Ohtani was born in the summer of 1994, just as Jackson’s high-profile athletic career was coming to an end. Jackson finished as a member of the Angels for all teams, playing his final game at a ballpark where Ohtani is building his own two-way legend.
Jackson was, in another sense, a two-way star, being the only player to be an All-Star in baseball as an outfielder for the Royals and a Pro Bowler in football as a running back for the Los Angeles Raiders. Bo didn’t know how to pitch like Ohtani, but he might have.
“We used to joke, ‘Did you ever think you could shut it down?’ Just watching what he did was amazing: his speed, his power. Looking at him, the same thing can be said about him: speed, power.
“I played against Deion Sanders and he was phenomenal too. Don’t get me wrong. similar.”
Ohtani surprised the Bronx crowd in his first at-bat on Tuesday with a line drive that hit the Yankees bullpen at 116.7 mph. It was his third hit ball in the majors of the season.
Three-time Angels Most Valuable Player Mike Trout shook his head and smiled after the game. “That ball hit pretty well — and it’s low.”
Ohtani added a stolen base on Tuesday and hit another ball over the fence on Wednesday. Yankees’ Aaron Judge returned it for a juggling catch. He has the longest active streak in the majors. Started 11 consecutive games without allowing more than one run.
According to Gubica, the best modern comparisons to Ohtani are Jacob deGrom and Bryce Harper. The fusion of the two is unprecedented. Last season, Ohtani became the first player to record enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title and enough innings to qualify for the ERA title.Only a 62-home run season from the judges prevented Ohtani from being repeated as American League MVP
“He wants to be the person everyone talks about forever. Not in the sense of ‘Look at me, how good I am’, just ‘Look at what I can achieve.’ ‘,’ said former teammate David Kohn about Ohtani’s astounding feat.
“I talk to Connie all the time, ‘After pitching, we couldn’t even walk. Shoulders, elbows, ribs, back, butt, everything hurt. And the next day, he threw a 98 and hit a home run.’ It’s impossible for us humans to have that kind of discipline. ”
Gubikuza was there when Jackson died after dislocating his left hip during a Raiders playoff game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in January 1991. .
Injuries ended Jackson’s NFL career after just four seasons, but he left such an impression that he is often considered the greatest athlete of all time. Author Jeff Perlman, who wrote the definitive Jackson biography, The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, in 2022, believes it and sees Ohtani as something of an heir. increase.
“Like Shohei Ohtani teeth Bo Jackson,” Perlman said. “It’s not exactly the same, but he’s doing things on a very high level that I’ve never seen before. So for me, he’s as close as any Bo Jackson I’ve ever seen.”
Perlman said their origin story confirms the similarity. Sports fans could see both phenomena from a distance, but had only a vague idea of what was really going on.
Jackson wasn’t exactly mysterious in 1980s Auburn, but he still wasn’t everywhere. In Japan in the 2010s, Ohtani was well-documented as a pitching and hitting star, but no one knew if or how well he could do both in the majors.
They left their fans and peers in awe as both players continued to exceed expectations.
“They’re both mythical creatures in a world that doesn’t have a lot of it,” Perlman said. I’ve seen Kevin Durant hit a jumper, I’ve seen Ja Morant dunk, but Ohtani has a punch that no one has ever seen before. There’s something about doing things that pretty much ignores technical access to everything.
There was no precedent for a player as successful in football and baseball as Jackson. And there is no precedent for a full-time hitter and pitcher like Ohtani. Even Babe Ruth has never done both full-time in the same season.
Ohtani’s Tuesday home run came in 1923 on the 100th anniversary of the opening of the original Yankee Stadium (the house Ruth built). Ohtani was aware of the timing, but he said he wouldn’t hit any more home runs after this season because his agent is coming. More than a joke about settings.
“It’s a beautiful field. I’m a passionate fan,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “I always look forward to playing here.”
Historically, Ohtani hasn’t hit much at Yankee Stadium. He hit four homers in his 12 games through Thursday’s matinee, but his career average in the Bronx was .140. Tuesday’s stolen base was his first in New York and first of the season. The Angels are reluctant to risk hurting valuable players, but Ohtani has the speed to run like Jackson.
“I think others were fast, but no one saw or heard Bo go down the line as fast. It sounded like a freight train,” Gubicza said. “Now when I’m with Shohei, I can’t even hear him. He’s got a Willie Wilson-type stride.”
Wilson was another former Royals teammate, a batting champion, and a leader in stolen bases. But when it comes to the sheer amount of elite skills, Ohtani pretty much stands alone.
“I don’t know how to throw a 101 and hit the ball at 115 mph off the bat,” Gubicza said. “I don’t know how you do it.”
Bo knows – or at least something like that. Gubica should take him to a pre-match show with Ohtani.
