CORRECTED: Baseball: Ohtani named Classic MVP, aims next at Angels postseason

At his March 2019 retirement press conference, Ichiro Suzuki was blunt about his expectations for Shohei Ohtani, saying, “He has to become the world’s No. 1 baseball player.”

Four years later, the Los Angeles Angels two-way star has all but secured that mantle, further underlining his claim by helping Japan win the World Baseball Classic with a 3-2 victory over the United States in Tuesday’s final in Miami.

“It’s unrealistic for someone to win the Cy Young Award one season and a home run title the next...but Shohei makes us imagine he might do that,” Suzuki said back in 2019.

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