Fourteen years ago, in a suburb of Seoul, South Korea, a group of 20 eager Canadian youth baseball players received humbling news.
The club, made up of talented high school students from across the Commonwealth, held a pre-game meeting prior to the opening game of the 2012 18-and-Under Baseball World Championship against Japan. Head coach Greg Hamilton, a no-nonsense Canadian baseball player, strolled into the room. He stared at the children he helped gather, most of whom had never been this far from home. A few, including Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill and Jacob Robson, would go on to play in the major leagues. Others forged minor league careers. Some people choose other paths.
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But they all remember the rest of that day. First came a scouting report from Hamilton, part warning, part encouragement.
“The guy on the mound for Japan is the best 18-year-old pitcher in the world,” said Robson, the typically sensible, no-hyperbole captain telling his players. “And he’s also the best 18-year-old batsman in the world.”
Of course, he was referring to Shohei Ohtani.
Technically, though, Otani’s name doesn’t have an Anglicized H. During the 2012 18U BWC, his Samurai uniform and official transcript both spelled out the now unmistakable surname “Otani”.
Things are a little different now. Today, the 31-year-old is a global superstar, a national hero and captain of the Japanese team that won back-to-back World Baseball Classic titles. Ohtani made his WBC debut three years ago, propelling the club to glory with an unprecedented two-way performance. He went 10-for-23 with 10 walks and five extra-base hits to win the tournament’s MVP award. He also made two stellar starts and capped the game with a memorable and dramatic bench appearance in the championship game against then-teammate Mike Trout.
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With the 2026 tournament now in full swing, with the Japanese Samurai facing Venezuela in the quarterfinals on Saturday night, the focus is once again on Ohtani.
Although his international career has grown into a legend, it began on a disappointing afternoon with a reported attendance of just 125 people. In his first ever appearance for Japan, Ohtani was already a fairly well-known figure in his home country, but was beaten by a bunch of nasty Canadians who had no idea who he was until Greg Hamilton told them.
“[Hamilton] Robson went on to say that he wasn’t saying this to scare us. ” Robson explained. “He just wanted to prepare us, like, ‘Hey, he’s throwing the ball really hard. He knows what he’s doing. From the time he was little, everyone was paying attention to him. He is a child prodigy. “
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He may have been a prodigy, but Ohtani’s final pitching line that day was impressive: 3 1/3 innings, 3 hits, 3 ERA, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts. At the plate, he went 1-for-3 with an intentional walk and a laser-beam double play lineout that nearly decapitated Canadian pitcher Ryan Kellogg.
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Coincidentally, while there were a handful of MLB evaluators in attendance, the number was much smaller than expected. That’s because highly regarded South Korean left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu was scheduled to transfer to Major League Baseball (MLB) that winter, the same day he pitched for the Hanwha Eagles. So many scouts who would have seen Ohtani went out to watch Yoo.
Even though Ohtani was bowled and dismissed early on, opposing batsmen were blown away by his performance.
“I walked into the zone and he was just hitting hot, 94, 95,” recalled shortstop Daniel Pinero, who would go on to win the College World Series with the University of Virginia. “Back then, no one was throwing that hard, especially in high school. We were also from Canada, where the pitching age was 85, 86. This tall, skinny kid walked up to the mound and he just radiated heat and had a disgusting movement, and we were like, ‘Okay, this kid is disgusting.'”
This overwhelming arsenal got Canada into trouble early on, with Ohtani causing some ugly, ugly swings along the way. He struck out three in the second inning, including future All-Star and current WBC Team Canada captain Naylor. In the third inning, Ohtani’s playcalling abandoned him, with a bases loaded, a couple of passes and a single giving Canada its first run. Things took a turn for the worse after an inning, when a bases loaded hit, a hit and two singles gave Canada the lead. That led to the Japanese manager leaving the dugout and changing pitchers, but Ohtani’s days were far from over.
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“I think they took him out of the game and he just jogged to the outfield,” Robson said. “I think he played outfield every inning he didn’t pitch.”
Ohtani also continued to hit, allowing an RBI hit to left in the seventh inning and an intentional walk in the ninth. Japan took the lead in the seventh inning, but Canada sent the game into overtime in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth inning when third baseman Jesse Hodges hit a tying, two-run home run. The Canadians finally pulled away in a tight tenth inning to complete the upset.
“These are the types of games you dream about as a kid,” Hodges later said. “Hunting a home run in the ninth inning to tie the game for your country is the best feeling in the world.”
The victory would propel Canada to one of its best finishes on the international stage, a silver medal after losing to the United States in the title game. Ohtani will play again in the tournament, in the fifth-place match against host South Korea. He was dominant in that game, striking out 12 in seven innings of two-run ball, more fittingly auguring the illustrious international career he would go on to have.
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But what about that first outing? Against Canada? For Ohtani and his teammates, it’s one to forget. But for Canadian players, it’s a core memory they still think about today.
“That’s what I always say to people when they talk about Ohtani — like, ‘Oh, I played against him in high school,'” Robson said.
“They’re like, ‘What?'”
