NFL Draft Prospect Travis Hunter Has Asinine Take on Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani’s Two-Way Abilities
Shohei Ohtani is a generational talent that the baseball world hasn’t seen since the likes of Babe Ruth in the early 1900s.
The Los Angeles Dodgers saw their designated hitter win the National League MVP award this past season and become the first player in MLB history to hit 50 or more home runs and steal 50 or more bases.
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Although ‘limited’ to just hitting in 2024 while recovering from a revisional Tommy John surgery, Ohtani looks to return to the mound that he last pitched as a member of the Los Angeles Angels in 2023.
Another two-way star in his own right, University of Colorado’s Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy — college football’s equivalent to the MVP award — while playing on both offense and defense as a wide receiver and cornerback.
During the NFL combine last week, Hunter was asked what is harder to do between playing both sides of the field in football, or what Ohtani does in baseball.
“Probably me and what I do in football because it’s on a lot on your body,” Hunter said. “Ohtani, he’s a great player, but you gotta do a lot in football.”
One could check out the scars on Ohtani’s pitching elbow from two major elbow surgeries or ask his torn labrum in the World Series about the toll baseball takes on a two-way athlete’s body.
The kind of comparison between these two sports can never be accurately measured, but two of Ohtani’s three MVP awards came while he was pitching over 130 innings and tossing over 150 strikeouts in a season.
Those MVP years, 2021 and 2023, were also met with a 46 home run and 44 home run offensive outpour, respectively.
While Hunter’s brilliance on the football field can’t be denied, fans will see how it translates to a professional level ahead of the NFL Draft this April.
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Photo Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
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Over the 100+ year history of major-league baseball, over 20,700 players have played the game. Shohei Ohtani has done not one, but TWO things, that no other player has ever done in history:
1) Hit 50 home runs and stole 50 bases in one season
2) Named MVP 3 straight seasons, covering both leagues.
All these were done against elite professional athletes. The best of the best.
Memo to Travis… Get back to us when you accomplish something of significance against the most elite professional athletes in the world in your sport.
Until then, sit down, shut up, and observe the greatness of Ohtani, all done with humility… Which is something you’ve never possessed an ounce of in all your college playing days.