Shohei Ohtani Parents: All About Kayoko and Toru Ohtani—
Shohei Ohtani is a Japanese professional baseball-designed hitter, pitcher, and outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball.
He has previously played in MLB for the Los Angeles Angels and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
Shohei is nicknamed “Shotime,” and his love for the sport is so immense that in Japan, he is known as “yakyū shōnen”—a kid who lives, eats, and breathes baseball.
Shohei Ohtani was born into a sports-loving family, Both of his parents were athletes. Here’s everything to know about Shohei Ohtani’s parents.
Who are Shohei Ohtani Parents
Shohei Ohtani was born to Kayoko and Toru Ohtani in Mizusawa (now part of Ōshū), Iwate, Japan, on July 5, 1994.
Shohei may have inherited the baseball gene from his father, who played at the industrial league level.
While he never went professional, Toru was an outfielder for a corporate-sponsored baseball team, per the Japanese publication Mainichi.
However, after a shoulder injury at 25, per Sports Illustrated, Toru went to work full-time at a Mitsubishi factory.
His mother, Kayoko was an amateur badminton player, playing on the same level as Toru did in baseball. However, Shohei joked that she may have been the stronger athlete.
When Shohei was little, Kayoko would take him to the badminton courts to play with the equipment while she practiced — and he showed promise early on.
Before they welcomed Shohei in 1994, Kayoko and Toru had two other children: son Ryuta and daughter Yuka.
Ryuta now also plays baseball and coaches for a corporate baseball team, but when he was in high school, his team did not progress as far as he wanted to, leaving him disappointed.
Toru said he saw how upset his son was and was determined to spend more time dedicated to baseball and help his youngest child, Shohei, improve his game.
“If only I had worked together with him more … I’ve got to give to Shohei what I couldn’t give to his older brother,” Toru told Mainichi what he remembered thinking at that time.
Toru took coaching Shohei upon himself from the time his son was in elementary school through junior high school – but that didn’t mean he played favorites.
“Up until I reached high school, we probably spent more time together on the field than anywhere else,” Shohei told Nippon. “There was no special treatment. In practice and games, I didn’t think of him as my dad. He was first and foremost my coach.”
Shohei added that having his dad as his coach only humbled him and taught him that he needed to continue to work hard, otherwise his teammates would call him out.
“I was still young, but I knew my relationship with my dad wouldn’t guarantee me playing time,” he said. “I had to earn a spot like everyone else or my teammates would cry foul. It taught me never to expect anything, but to work for it.”
Even though they may live a continent and ocean away, the distance has not stopped Shohei’s parents from visiting and supporting their son during his biggest games.
The proud parents came out to Shohei’s opening game with the Los Angeles Angels in March 2018 against the Oakland Athletics.
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