The four words were first spoken here on a bright spring afternoon at Camelback Ranch, my astonished syllables joining similar tones of amazement floating from every corner of a crowded press box.
“Are you kidding me?”
Down to his last pitch in his first spring training game as a Dodger, Shohei Ohtani had just launched a two-run home run.
“Are you kidding me?”
The crowd gasped in disbelief at the perfect timing and wondrous theater, the four words reverberating around the stadium like an anthem to the unimaginable.
“Are you kidding me?”
Eight months later, Los Angeles still asks that question.
Was Shohei Ohtani’s first season as a Dodger really real? Was the best baseball player on the planet even better than that? Could the man with arguably the highest expectations in baseball history actually exceed them?
Read more: Shohei Ohtani unanimously wins his third MVP award, and first with the Dodgers
Yes, yes and unbelievably, yes.
In being named the National League most valuable player on Thursday — becoming only the second player to win an MVP in both leagues — Ohtani completed a summer decorated with an even higher honor.
Most Valuable Season Ever By A Los Angeles Athlete.
This city has witnessed many memorable seasons by many legendary athletes, from Magic Johnson’s rookie year to Fernando Valenzuela’s rookie year to Sandy Koufax’s 1963 to Eric Dickerson’s 1984 to Shaquille O’Neal’s 2000.
But never before has one player during one season dominated the sport, transformed the town, awed the world and brought home a championship.
After back-to-back playoff collapses, this was not a Dodgers town when Ohtani drove up the freeway from Anaheim this winter.
It is overwhelmingly a Dodgers town now.
His team was considered a bunch of underachievers before Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700-million contract.
His team is now World Series champions.
There was little international interest in the Dodgers before Ohtani brought his magical aura to Chavez Ravine.
The Dodgers are now the most popular baseball team in the world.
One man changed everything, an MVP of MVPs, the greatest Dodgers newcomer…