Japan celebrates as Ohtani becomes first major leaguer to reach 50-50 milestone

"We would like to express our heartfelt congratulations on his achievement of this giant record,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said as he responded to the first question at his regular news conference Friday. “We look forward to seeing more successes from Ohtani, who has already achieve numerous feats and pioneered new grounds."

Excellent, way to go!!

6 hits, 10 RBI, 3 home runs in ONE game, that was a performance for the history books!

Congratulations to Ohtani - the greatest baseball player of all time!

Looking now to next season. Staggering to imagine what records he breaks as he begins pitching again! By the time he retires in around 10 years, Ohtani will have broken every baseball record in the books.

This is terrific. I wonder how he became such a legendary player? What sports systems in the government spotted his talent and nurtured it? There is a huge sports support system in Japan from the earliest years in schooling for these athetes.

Good job! Now if only the Dodgers can get their pitching ready for the playoffs and get Ohtani the WS to go with this record.

I wonder how he became such a legendary player? What sports systems in the government spotted his talent and nurtured it?

Umm, perhaps you are thinking of the system in China, not Japan? It is not the government that "spots talent and nurtures it" - it is done by schools, colleges and privately owned professional teams.

Ohtani played for his High School team in Iwate, was then offered a contract by Nippon Ham at 18, played 4 seasons in Hokkaido, went to America - and the rest is history.

Not only is the first 50-50 player in history, he was the first player to hit 3 home runs and steal 2 bases in history.

And if he hadn’t been thrown out at 3rd, he’d have hit for the cycle.

How awesome is he? He hit a HR on a 2-0 pitch from an infielder with a double-digit lead and nobody got huffy about breaking one of the “unwritten rules.”

Congratulation Sir, Hats off for Mr. champion Ohtani.

Numbers 49-50 were good home runs. #51 was kind of cheap; the pitcher was just tossing the ball casually since the other team knew they had already lost. Dodgers probably should have benched Ohtani at that point.

The player who threw #51 was actually not a pitcher that’s why the pitch looked “weaker”

A couple of friends of mine have heard that the other teams are letting Ohtani get home runs and steel bases because of the publicity that baseball gets. This is a way to bring back crowds and make everyone a lot of money. Really???

She says nobody had thought a Japanese player would so well a decade ago. 

What a strange statement, as Ichiro was already a success.

A couple of friends of mine have heard that the other teams are letting Ohtani get home runs and steel bases because of the publicity that baseball gets. This is a way to bring back crowds and make everyone a lot of money. Really???

It can look that way, but it isn't the same as batting practice.

Yes, I know.

The player who threw #51 was actually not a pitcher that’s why the pitch looked “weaker”

He's almost got as many homeruns as Judge now.