He's an Angel on the other side of the Pacific and for now wears "Japan" across the chest of his uniform, but Shohei Ohtani will always have a place in the hearts of fans from his native Iwate Prefecture.
Ohtani put on the type of performance expected of one of baseball's biggest stars when he led Japan to an 8-1 victory over China on Thursday night at Tokyo Dome in their opening game of the World Baseball Classic.
But it was not lost on those from his home region that the 28-year-old two-way star was in the spotlight two days before the 12th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which devastated Iwate and the rest of the Tohoku region.
