Just pure sounds of destruction
Los Angeles Dodgers DH (not Designated Hitter, no. Demigod Hero) Shohei Ohtani can’t pitch this year due to Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow, so he has decided to focus all of his time on hitting the baseball. In response, we’ve gotten answers to the question of what if the best two-way baseball player we’ve seen since the early 1900’s focused solely on hitting.
Ohtani is on track to be the first MVP as an exclusive DH, leads the National League in homers with 27, and almost every hit he has is a hard one: he’s 2nd in average exit velocity in the MLB behind Aaron Judge and tied for first in number of hard hit baseballs. Which makes sense because every homer that he hits sounds like the ball got launched out of a cannon, such as this monster against the Diamondbacks on Tuesday.
Every Shohei homer makes a sound so majestic that you have to replay it multiple times to really get the vibes.
I mean good LORD, man. If you only played the audio of this hit and not the video you would think something just got broken.
I don’t know if they hooked up an extra mic to Ohtani’s bat or if he’s actually using a thunderbolt from Zeus instead of a normal bat but a Shohei Ohtani homerun always sounds like a tank hit it. It makes me think about the best sounds in sports, and quite frankly a Shohei homer is number one on that list.
Here’s the working list, that’s open to changes:
Shohei homerun
A swish on a jumper
A Mike Breen “BANG”
A doink off the crossbar in football
Sneakers squeaking on the court
A lot of solid contenders, but Ohtani tops the list. He won’t be competing in the Home Run Derby due to rehab for his Tommy John surgery, but you can just replay his 27 (and counting) homeruns to get the same idea.
