Winning the American League's Most Valuable Player Award on Thursday was the icing on the cake for Shohei Ohtani and his remarkable 2021 season, in which he achieved career heights as a hitter, hitting 46 home runs while starting 23 games for the Los Angeles Angels.Ohtani's unanimous selection made him, after Ichiro Suzuki in 2001, the second Japanese to win an MVP in the U.S. majors. And though Japan now celebrates Ohtani and Suzuki as national heroes, both only achieved that status after once being looked down on back home for the different way they wanted to play pro baseball.Suzuki won …READ FULL ARTICLE
