Whether or not Ohtani hits a great distance home run depends on whether or not he hits a powerful fastball with just a few millimetres and a millimetre of error.
If he continues to be wrong by a few millimetres and a millimetre, Otani will instantly cease to be a hero.
In football, a few centimetres off a shot determines whether a player becomes a hero or not.
A three-point shot is determined by whether it reaches the ring by a few more millimetres or not.
In golf, a shot can be decided by whether the ball rides into the wind or not.
In the 100-metre dash, a hundredth of a second can decide whether you win a medal or not.
In swimming, it is a hundredth of a second before or after you touch the final wall.
In horse racing, the nose of the horse decides the outcome.
Sumo wrestling is also often decided at the edge of the ring.
The difference between a hand in the ring and a foot in the ring is a few centimetres.
The difference of a few centimetres determines whether or not a fighter can snatch the thick bounty.
Thus, in professional sports, the line between victory and defeat is at the very edge.
Athletes train with their lives on the line in order to win on the edge.
But because of the sharp difference between life and death at the very edge, elegance has disappeared from sport.
It has become more acceptable to verbally abuse rivals, like Trump.
In tennis, which is supposed to be a noble sport, players now swear at referees' judgments and smash their rackets on the court.
The public also enjoys watching this, and villains who ignore manners have even become heroes.
The slightest difference in performance is matched by a tremendous difference in bounty and contract money.
This is no different from the brutal shows in the amphitheatre Colosseum in Rome.
Rarely did the gladiatorial winners become wealthy or free.
No matter how wonderful a player Mr Otani is, what is a 100 billion yen contract!
Yes, it is a managerial investment, with an eye on profits in return dozens of times that amount.
In a capitalist world, everything is good as long as it makes money, and money calls for money.
If you actually go to a ballpark, all the players are bean-counters, except for the special seats.
Even if you pay a lot of money to buy sumo seats, you are far away from the ring and the rikishi all look like small fighters.
Television live broadcasts give a much larger close-up view of the athletes and rikishi.
It is up to the individual sports enthusiast to decide how they want to enjoy their sport, but shouldn't they have to pay a lot of money to go all the way to the stadium or arena?
If everyone did that, it would cool down the overheating of professional sports a bit.