Angels News: Shohei Ohtani on How He Fell in Love with the Game of Baseball

Shohei Ohtani started playing baseball at a very young age. In his hometown of Ōshū, Iwate, Japan, Ohtani was raised playing baseball with his dad and brother. It was 'natural' for him to play, but it didn't take long for him to fall in love with the sport.

He spoke with FOX's Ben Verlander on how he came to love the special game.

"I guess both my dad and brother played so it was quite natural for me to play with them," Ohtani said. "Playing catch or hitting balls. It started like that. I just wanted to have fun. We only had practice on weekends, and I was just looking forward to the weekend during my days in school. While I set myself high goals, at that time, I think it was more about just having fun."

Having fun was definitely the beginning of it for Ohtani. But very quickly, it turned into more. Ohtani excelled at the sport, and constantly dominated his peers. That's what led him to be one of the best players in the Japanese League, before coming to the MLB in 2018.

But even as his full-time job, Ohtani is always having fun when he plays baseball. He told Verlander what drew him to this game, and continues to make it so special.

"Personally, I felt that team sport was more interesting," Ohtani said. "So that’s the first thing. And then even as a team sport, the individual factor plays a big part. In terms of batting, of course, there are things like batting for the team, but even in that, the individual factor plays a very big part. When you look at it as a game overall, it’s a team sport. So the most interesting part of it is that there are so many different factors that come into the game."

It's not often you see someone dominate a sport while simultaneously having so much fun, but that's just how special Ohtani is. Shohei is already on his way to going down as one of the greatest and most unique players in baseball history, and he's making sure to enjoy it along the way.