LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- If not for the Babe Ruth of Japan, the New York Yankees' new version of Mantle and Maris likely never would have been formed. It was 23-year-old Japanese wunderkind Shohei Ohtani, not Giancarlo Stanton, who had been the Yankees’ obsession for years, and it was Ohtani whom they hoped to woo to the Bronx this winter.
The team had a presentation planned in which Ohtani would have been told he could pitch and DH for the Yankees. But Ohtani never even let the perceived favorites, the Yankees, make a pitch in person.