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<\/p>\nMIAMI \u2014 Shohei Ohtani calls Miami’s loanDepot Park, the site of the knockout rounds of this year’s World Baseball Classic, one of his favorite stadiums.<\/p>\n
It’s not hard to imagine why. It’s the place where he delivered two of baseball’s quintessential moments from the last few years.<\/p>\n
It’s the ballpark where, on Sept. 19, 2024, he entered \u2014 created, really \u2014 baseball’s 50-50 club. All Ohtani did that night: go 6 for 6, hit three home runs, steal two bases, drive in 10 runs, become the first player ever to reach 50 homers and 50 steals in a season. And if that wasn’t enough, the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched a playoff berth that night to officially begin down the path of what has become back-to-back World Series titles.<\/p>\n
And in 2023, the last time he wore the Japan uniform in Miami, Ohtani delivered the knockout punch in the WBC \u2014 striking out Mike Trout, his then-teammate with the Los Angeles Angels, on a full-count curve to seal Japan’s 3-2 win over the U.S. in the title game.<\/p>\n
Ohtani is back, and so is Japan, looking for another title. They worked out on the Miami Marlins’ field Thursday, two days before they’ll take on Venezuela in a WBC quarterfinal game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the place I have very good memories,\u201d Ohtani said through an interpreter Thursday. <\/p>\n
Ohtani has won three consecutive MVP awards \u2014 one in the AL, then two in the NL since joining the Dodgers \u2014 and was the AL’s MVP in 2021 as well. That’s four in five seasons, something only Barry Bonds (who won four of his seven MVPs consecutively) has done in baseball history.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani catches a ball as he warms up before the start of the fourth inning of a World Baseball Classic game between Japan and the Czech Republic on Tuesday, March 10, 2026 in Tokyo. Credit: AP\/Eugene Hoshiko<\/p>\n
All four of Ohtani’s MVP awards have come in unanimous votes. He was MVP of the 2023 WBC as well, and if Japan \u2014 the only three-time champion in the event’s history \u2014 wins again, Ohtani will have yet another reason to celebrate in Miami.<\/p>\n
It won’t end exactly the same way this year, since Ohtani isn’t pitching in this year’s WBC, but another title \u2014 however it arrives \u2014 would be good enough. He likes Miami, likes the memories he has there, but knows it’s time to create new ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, I\u2019m not going to bring memories to the next game,” Ohtani said. “But I think there is a very positive influence to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Shohei Ohtani calls Miami’s loanDepot Park, the site of the knockout rounds of this year’s World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3824,24227,123,125,3822,124,3817,122],"class_list":["post-189189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-marlins","tag-miami-news","tag-mlb","tag-wires-bot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}