Shohei Ohtani is a global superstar.
The 2026 ESPY Awards provided the latest evidence of that, with the Dodgers two-way player winning two trophies, as determined by fan votes, at Wednesday night’s ceremony in New York.
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But as surprising at it may be — especially to those of us in the Los Angeles area who have witnessed the Japanese baseball phenomenon during his nine years with our local MLB teams — not everyone on the planet is familiar with the four-time MVP and two-time World Series champion.
The ESPYs provided evidence of that as well. Boxers Mike Tyson and Jake Paul joined musician DJ Khaled to present the award for best single-game performance. Ohtani — nominated for his historic Game 4 of the 2025 National League championship series against the Milwaukee Brewers — was the winner, as announced by Tyson.
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Paul told the crowd that Ohtani was unable to attend the event, but “he sends his gratitude and appreciation to ESPN and everyone who voted for him.”
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Afterward, a hot mic picked up Tyson seeming to ask Paul a rather unexpected question:
“Shohei’s a guy?”
The question seemed to be genuine, and Paul gave a casual response to his friend and former boxing opponent. “Yeah, he’s a guy,” Paul appeared to say as the trio started leaving the stage.
The Times reached out to a Tyson representative for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
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No shade toward Iron Mike for apparently not knowing much about Ohtani. Tyson is a legend in his sport and has a number of other ventures and interests that occupy his time. While he did throw out a ceremonial first pitch before a Brewers-Pittsburgh Pirates game in 2014, Tyson just might not be all that into baseball.
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Also, the name Shohei isn’t at all common in the U.S., even amid Ohtani’s massive popularity. According to Parenting Patch, only nine American babies were given that name in each of the last two years. All of them were boys, but the odds are good that Tyson doesn’t know any of them.
If Tyson hasn’t been following Ohtani’s career, though, he’s missing out. Take the aforementioned Game 4 of last year’s NLCS as an example. Ohtani hit three home runs and pitched six-plus scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts in a 5-1 victory over the Brewers that completed an NLCS sweep and sent the Dodgers to the World Series for the second straight year.
“That was probably the greatest postseason performance of all time,” manager Dave Roberts said after the game.
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Ohtani was much more low-key in his postgame assessment.
“This time around, it was my turn to be able to perform,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I think just looking back over the course of the entire postseason, I haven’t performed to the expectation.”
With his performance that night, Ohtani beat out fellow nominees Tyce Armstrong of Baylor baseball (three grand slams in a game), Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat (83 points in a game) and Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame basketball (16 steals in a game) for the award.
That epic game certainly contributed to Ohtani’s other ESPY of the night. He was named best MLB player over fellow nominees Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners and Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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