Future HOFer, Shohei Ohtani was known growing up simply as ‘baseball boy’. As a teenager, Ohtani could have played baseball for any powerhouse high school team in big cities such as Osaka or Yokohama. Instead, he opted to stay local, selecting Hanamaki Higashi High School in Iwate Prefecture, Northern Japan. Hanamaki Higashi's players lived on campus, returning home for only six days a year. Sasaki would assign toilet cleaning chores to Ohtani, to teach him humility. In 2012, Ohtani threw a 160 km/h (99 mph) fastball as an 18-year-old high school pitcher, which at the time, had set a Japanese high school baseball record. His prodigious talents continued with him into the Japanese professional game, making his debut at age 18, in 2013 and was selected for a Pacific League All-Star Game roster spot. Only the second Nippon Pro Baseball rookie drafted out of High School the previous year, to be used as both a pitcher and position player (following Kikuo Tokungaga in 1951). Selected as an All Star again in 2014 and then Pacific League Pitcher Best Nine and ERA leader in 2015. The following year (2016), he was awarded the league MVP and led Nippon Ham to the Japan Series Championship. He made the Best Nine as the top pitcher and top DH in the Pacific League, becoming the first player to receive the awards as both a pitcher and a hitter. In 2017, he played 65 games, hitting .332 with eight homers and 31 RBI’s and a 3.20 ERA. It was then revealed that Ohtani would ask to be posted at the end of the season to play in the MLB. Ohtani’s 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 seasons are considered among the greatest in baseball history, earning legitimate comparisons to Babe Ruth, when no one has even sniffed the like since. Inside the back tail is the MizunoPro label, with tags below: ‘17-’ and ‘11’. Inside the back of the neck is a ‘star’ label, with ‘06, 16, 06, 07, 09, 12, 16’. Team name (HOKKAIDO NIPPON HAM) across the front, done in black tackle twill on gold on white embroidery. Player name (OHTANI) across the back, with player number (11) below - both done in black tackle twill on white embroidery. The back of the neck is adorned with the NPB label. The left sleeve with a NIPPON-HAM patch. The right with a FIGHTERS patch and a patch with Japanese lettering. This jersey is properly tagged, presented to us as game-used and in our opinion shows appropriate wear.