LOS ANGELES: His arrival was greeted, amid a blaze of publicity, with breathless comparisons to Babe Ruth and soaring hype about a double-threat talent that was poised to take Major League Baseball by storm.

But as Shohei Ohtani prepares to embark on his career in the most demanding —and least forgiving—baseball league in the world, the 23-year-old Japanese pitcher-hitter still has everything to prove.

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