The Brief

MIZUSAWA, Japan — Los Angeles Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani is often described as a once-in-a century talent, especially for his dual skills as pitcher and hitter.

To understand how Ohtani became such a baseball prodigy, it helps to journey to Ohtani's hometown of Mizusawa, in northern Japan's Iwate prefecture, to see where he got his start in baseball.

Ohtani's Little League team, the Mizusawa Pirates, still practices every weekend at a diamond sandwiched between a country road and a river where salmon swim upstream from the Pacific Ocean.

Ohtani played here in the early 2000s, between the ages of 8 and 14.

"He and his parents came to this field to see me," recalls coach Shoji Asari, who founded the Pirates.

Asari thought that Ohtani might like to join his school's softball team with the rest of his friends.

A yearbook from the early 2000s shows a young Shohei Ohtani with his former Little League team, the Mizusawa Pirates.

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"But he looked straight into my eyes and said, 'I want to play hardball with this team,'" says Asari. "I thought this boy could make it big, and he gave that impression, but he was very skinny at the time."

Ohtani's capabilities quickly surpassed his teammates'. Batting left-handed, he often hit home runs over the right-field fence and into the river. Asari says the cost of lost baseballs began to add up.

"So I jokingly told him, 'Don't pull your hits, Shohei!'" he recalls. "He shot me a dagger-like look, and then hit his next homer to left field. I think that was when he found the fun of opposite-field hitting."

Ohtani's opposite-field home runs have become a signature of his hitting, including the hardest-hit opposite-field homer by a left-handed hitter since Major League Baseball's Statcast data system began tracking them in 2015. Opposite-field home runs require more power, as the batter swings later and the bat has less time to accelerate.

As a kid, Ohtani also excelled at pitching. He hurled faster fastballs and his sliders curved more than other pitchers'. Not only were they hard to hit, they were also very hard to catch.

"I had never caught a ball from a pitcher who could throw at more than 87 miles per hour," says Ryuki Sasaki, Ohtani's catcher in high school.

He remembers the numerous sprained fingers that the pitches caused. "Also, his slider curves too much," he says, "and my body couldn't react in time. In the beginning, I couldn't catch his pitches at all."

In Japanese, players who excel at both pitching and hitting are called nitoryu, or "two-sword style," a term that recalls the samurai warriors of Japan's past. As in martial arts, Japanese Little League players hone their skills through repetitive drills, and in Ohtani's days, strict discipline often included corporal punishment.

Players with the Mizusawa Pirates hop over a ladder for agility drills during a weekend practice. Young baseball players in Japan use repetitive drills to hone skills such as bunting or executing double plays.

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But Coach Asari took an unconventional approach, emphasizing fun over winning games.

"Most Japanese baseball players train hard how to play, suppress their own feelings, be patient and practice exactly as their coach says," explains sports journalist Nobuya Kobayashi, who has written a book about Ohtani. "But Coach Asari let his players grow freely. So Ohtani has continued to enjoy baseball the whole time."

Kobayashi says that anyone who has ever had fun playing baseball as a kid will be reminded of it when they see Ohtani play.

"No matter what the results are for him, his team's victory simply makes him happy," says former catcher Sasaki. "I think even now, he plays with the mind of an elementary school kid who loves baseball."

Many Little Leaguers in Japan are allowed both to hit and pitch, but it is rarer in pro baseball, partly because pitchers need to rest their arms, while hitters may play in every game. Kobayashi says Ohtani's efforts to continue his dual role.

Ohtani wanted to go play in the U.S. straight out of high school, but he consented to remain in Japan to play for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, on the condition that he be allowed to both hit and pitch. He played for the team from 2013 to 2017.

Kobayashi says Ohtani succeeded in playing on his own terms, facing down objections.

"Because of the Japanese mentality," he says, "they wanted to believe that the double sword style was impossible, because it had no precedent. Maybe they didn't want someone as extraordinary as Ohtani to emerge."

In another example of how Ohtani's exceptional skills have allowed him to bend or even rewrite the rules of the game, Major League Baseball made it a rule last year that a pitcher can still bat as designated hitter, even after being relieved on the mound. It's called the "Ohtani rule."

Mizusawa Pirates warm up during a weekend practice.

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Yet some observers, including Asari and Kobayashi, are concerned about the changes Ohtani has undergone since playing in the U.S., and the toll his dual path has exacted.

"It's up to the kids, but really, it's impossible," Asari says of the two swords style. "Even in America, only Babe Ruth could do it. You'd better not do it. You can get injured."

Kobayashi, meanwhile, argues that Ohtani has turned away from the Japanese style of baseball — which emphasizes controlling timing and distance — and adopted the American style, which he says is about power. He believes Ohtani has bulked up too much, and worries he could get hurt.

Ohtani has admitted feeling some fatigue this season, but he leads the Major Leagues in home runs and is among the top five pitchers when it comes to strikeouts.

"He made it big all due to his own efforts. We had nothing to do with it," Asari says modestly of Ohtani's success in the U.S.

Chie Kobayashi contributed to this report in Mizusawa and Tokyo.

Topline:

The case: In September, the city settled a lawsuit brought forward by two brothers in their 70s who said they suffered serious injuries after an LAPD officer crashed into their car. Days before the $18 million settlement was reached, lawyers for the brothers said Feldstein Soto called an expert witness testifying for the plaintiffs and “attempted to ingratiate herself with him and asked him to make a contribution to her political campaign,” according to a sworn declaration to the court by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Glassman.

The response: Feldstein Soto did not respond to an interview request. Her spokesperson said the settlement “had nothing to do” with the expert witness. Her campaign manager told LAist the city attorney had been making a routine fundraising call and did not know the person had a role in the case, nor that there were pending requests for her office to pay him fees.

What Jurado says: In a statement to LAist, Jurado said she wants to “make sure that the city’s legal leadership is guided by integrity and accountability, especially when their choices affect public trust, civic rights and the city’s limited resources."

What’s next: The motion needs to go through a few committees before reaching the full City Council. If it passes, the motion calls for the city attorney to “report to council in closed session within 45 days regarding the ethics breach violation and give updates to the City Council."

Every year in Santa Ana, Luis Cantabrana turns the front of his home into an elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe that draws hundreds of visitors.

Along the front of the house, the multi-colored altar is filled with lights, flowers and a stained-glass tapestry behind a sculpture of the Lady of Guadalupe. Cantabrana’s roof also is lit up with the green, white and red lights that spell out “Virgen de Guadalupe” and a cross.

Visitors are welcomed with music and the smell of roses as they celebrate the saint, but this year’s gathering comes after a dark year for immigrant communities.

Luis Cantabrana stands in front of the stunning altar he built in front of his home in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Every year, his display draws hundreds of visitors.

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Why do they celebrate? 

In 1513, the Virgin Mary appeared before St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, asking him to build a church in her honor. Her image — a brown-skinned woman wearing a green veil with her hands together in prayer and an angel at her feet — miraculously appeared on his cloak.

To celebrate in Santa Ana, worshippers gathered late-night Wednesday and in the very early hours Dec. 12 to pray the rosary, sing hymns and celebrate the saint.

Cantabrana has hosted worshippers at his home for 27 years — 17 in Santa Ana.

The altar started out small, he said, and over the years, he added a fabric background, more lights and flowers (lots and lots of flowers).

“It started with me making a promise to la Virgen de Guadalupe that while I had life and a home to build an altar, that I would do it,” Cantabrana said. “Everything you see in photos and videos is pretty, but when you come and see it live, it's more than pretty. It's beautiful.”

The Santa Ana home's elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe draws hundreds of visitors each year.

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Gathering in a time of turmoil 

Many also look to the Lady of Guadalupe for protection, especially at a time when federal enforcement has rattled immigrant communities.

“People don’t want to go to work, they don’t want to take their kids to school, but the love we have for our Virgen de Guadalupe,” Cantabrana said. “We see that la Virgen de Guadalupe has a lot of power, and so we know immigration [enforcement] won’t come here.”

Margarita Lopez of Garden Grove has been visiting the altar for three years with her husband. She’s been celebrating the Virgencita since she was a young girl. Honoring the saint is as important now as ever, she said.

“We ask, and she performs miracles,” Lopez said.

Claudia Tapia, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the Virgin Mary represents strength.

“Right now, with everything going on, a lot of our families [have] turned and prayed to the Virgen for strength during these times,” Tapia said. “She's a very strong symbol of Mexican culture, of unity, of faith and of resilience.”

See it for yourself

The shrine will stay up into the new year on the corner of Broadway and Camile Street.

California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for 4 1/2 years without checking whether its workers actually were using the devices.

That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were not using, according to a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies.

The Employment Development Department’s excessive cellphone bills date to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it shifted call center employees to remote work and faced pressure to release benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians.

It acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots by December 2020. State auditors analyzed 54 months of invoices since then and found half the devices were unused for at least two years, 25% were unused for three years and 99 of them were never used at all.

The investigation, which auditors opened after receiving a tip, identified 6,285 devices that were unused for at least four consecutive months, and said the department spent $4.6 million on monthly service fees for them.

From the beginning, the department had about 2,000 more cellphones than call center employees, according to the audit. The gap widened over time after the pandemic ended and the department’s staffing returned to its normal headcount.

As of April, the audit said the department had 1,787 unemployment call center employees, but was paying monthly service fees for 5,097 mobile devices.

“Although obtaining the mobile devices during COVID-19 may have been a good idea to serve the public, continuing to pay the monthly service fees for so many unused devices, especially post-COVID-19, was wasteful,” the audit said.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

“We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage,” the audit said.

The unemployment department began acting on the auditors’ findings in April, when it canceled service plans for 2,825 devices. It has since implemented a policy to terminate service plans for devices that go unused for 90 days.

The California state auditor highlighted the mobile devices in its regular report on “improper activities by state agencies and employees.” The audit also showed that the California Air Resources Board overpaid an employee who was on extended leave as he prepared to retire by $171,000.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.