No previous experiences could quite prepare a baseball team for the phenomenon that is rookie Shohei Ohtani. Even the man Ohtani is trying to match, Babe Ruth, didn’t try the “Simultaneously excel as a pitcher and hitter” thing until 1919, his sixth year. And it’s hard to find folks still around from the 1919 Red Sox.
If Angels general manager Billy Eppler couldn’t reach into anyone’s personal history to help run this unique experiment, however, he could at least help with another component of Ohtani Mania. Namely, the mania. Life as a Yankees executive gives you a running start for something like this.